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A RIBBON OF IRON 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

BY ANNETTE M. B. MEAKIN 



" One of the chief delights and benefits of travel is 
that one is perpetually meeting men of great abilities, 
of original mind, and rare acquirements, who will 
converse without reserve. In these discourses the 
intellect makes daring leaps and marvellous advances. 
The tone that colours our after life is often caught 
in these chance colloquies, and the bent given that 
shapes a career." 

Lord Beaconsfield 



WESTMINSTER 
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD 

NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON & CO 



* *%> 

TO 

MY DEAR MOTHER 

WHOSE COMPANIONSHIP 

WAS THE CROWNING PLEASURE 

OF A DELIGHTFUL TOUR 




Statue of Yermak. 



PREFACE 

WITHIN twenty days of our visit to 
Blagovestchensk, 1 that town was the 
scene of a massacre, the descriptions of which 
were received with horror throughout the 
civilized world. As we returned to St. Peters- 
burg by way of America it was not until 
lafter this book was written that I succeeded 
in getting from eye-witnesses a reliable 
iccount of what actually took place. While we 
reve at Blagovestchensk (we left on June 28, 
just four days before the first shot was fired) 
ill its troops were being mobilized for China, 
md every boat except the post boat had 
>een chartered to carry soldiers across the 
rater. So little did General Gribsky and the 
>olice dream of danger near at hand that 
mly one reserve battalion and one battery 
r ere left to guard the town. The rumour we 
had heard of a Chinese force stationed near 
Aigun was a true one. Having waited for their 
1 See chapters xvii. and xviii. 
5 



PREFACE 

opportunity, the Manchu insurgents were pre- 
paring to take advantage of the defenceless 
state in which the Russians had been left. 
They had actually fixed upon a night on which 
to surprise the town, and each man had been 
provided with a rope to strangle a Russian in 
his bed. A few hours before the time arranged 
they caught sight of what they took to be a 
band of Russian soldiers preparing to cross 
over and attack them. These were in reality 
a company of raw recruits who, being very 
dirty, had received orders to bathe in the river. ** 
This mistake saved Blagovestchensk. On July 
2, shots fired from Aigun upon a passin 
steamer raised the alarm. General Gribsk 
at once marched his remaining battalion ou] 
of the town to the bank of the river opposit 
Aigun and opened fire. In the meantimi 
the terror-stricken inhabitants, feeling them] 
selves utterly helpless and dreading lest th< 
Manchus in the town itself — whose numbers 
far exceeded their own — should rise and murdei 
them, fled in crowds to the neighbouring wood 
Some women even ran the distance of fiftee: 
versts. General Gribsky then sent word t 
the Cossacks that they were to turn all the 
Chinese out of the town and make them cross 




6 



i 



PREFACE 

the river. Unhappily the order was given to 
men who could not be trusted to act humanely. 
The Cossacks, who were little better than 
savages, threw themselves upon the helpless 
Chinese — among whom there were fortunately 
very few women and children — and drove them 
to the water's edge. Those who could not get 
across in rafts were either brutally massacred 
on the banks or pushed into the water and 
drowned. The scene which followed was horrible 
beyond description, and the river was black 
with dead bodies for weeks afterwards. I have 
this from no less than five eye-witnesses. The 
innocent had suffered for the guilty. There 
was not a Chinaman left in Blagovestchensk 
on the arrival of the forces which the Governor 
had summoned to his aid from Western Siberia. 
Crossing over to the Chinese towns of Sakhalin 
and Aigun, the Russian soldiers now burned 
them to the ground and then proceeded to drive 
the rebels into the interior. I call them rebels 
advisedly, for this was no war with China ; it 
was the beginning of Russia's campaign in 
Manchuria, which other countries have watched 
with so jealous an eye. 

I will here take the opportunity of thanking 

7 



PREFACE 

those kind friends who have helped me in the 
preparation of this volume. My especial thanks 
are due to Miss L. Kukol- Yasnopolsky * to whose 
able translation of the Ministerial Guide to the 
Great Siberian Railway I am indebted for many 
useful pieces of information. 

To Miss M. Mitchell, to Prince M. Dolgorouky, 
and to one other friend who wishes to be name- 
less, I should like to express my gratitude for 
many of the drawings and photographs with 
which my book is illustrated. 

A few weeks ago, when reading that interest- 
ing book, The Heart of a Continent, 2 I was 
pleased to find the following passage. "I like to 
record these little acts of kindness which I have 
received from Russians individually because I 
believe there are no two nationalities that would 
take to each other more than the Russians and 
ourselves if the opportunity were forthcoming ; 
and that the more the members of each nation 
learn to know one another the better it will be 
for us both." A. M. B. M. 

Interlaken, 

August 10, 1901. 

1 This lady is a niece of His Excellency Prince Hilkof, 
Minister of Ways and Communications. 

2 By Captain Frank E. Younghusband. 



8 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Starting . . . . ... . . .11 

II The Siberian Express . . . . .20 

III Omsk—A Visit to the Kirgiz ... 32 

IV The Post Train— Taiga— Tomsk ... 49 
V The Prisons of Tomsk— The Mysterious 

Hermit 69 

VI Krasnoiarsk— The Yenisei .... 82 

VII Minusinsk— The Age of Bronze ... 96 

VIII Emigrants— Lady Doctors— Krasnoiarsk 110 

IX Scenery after Krasnoiarsk— Irkutsk . 121 

X A Model Convict Settlement . . . 134 

XI Travelling Fourth Class— Lake Baikal 

Convicts 156 

XII Transbaikalia . . . . . . . 166 

XIII Stretinsk 184 

XIV On the Schilka . . . . . .200 

XV The Amur— Smoking Cliffs . . . .213 

XVI A Chinese Gold Mine— Russian Mines— 

Blagovestchensk 224 

XVII The Silver General 237 

XVIII Aigun . 251 

XIX Khabarovsk— The Ussuri Railway . . 264 

XX Khilkovo— Vladivostok .... 278 
XXI On a Cargo Boat— Fallen from the Sky 

—Sapporo 293 

XXII At Nikko— Startling News . . . .310 

9 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



and 



Statue of Yermak 

Kirgiz Types .... 

The Mosque at Omsk . 

Kirgiz Travelling in Winter . 

The University at Tomsk . 

Prince Hilkof, Minister of Ways 

Communications 
Market Place at Minusinsk 
Masks found near Minusinsk . 
Church Railway Carriage 
Bridge over the Yenisei . 

Irkutsk 

House for Visitors, Alexandrovsk 
Ice-breaker on the Baikal . 

Stretinsk 

Boats going to the Gold Mine, 

Tributary of the Amur . 
Gold Washing, near the Amur 
Village of Sakhalin, after it had been burnt 
Ainu Woman, with ingrained Moustache 
Photograph taken on landing at Otaru, 

North Japan 

Map of the Siberian Railway System 

10 



/ 

. Frontispiece 
To face page 32 f 
40/ 
46' 

102 - 

104 

112 

122 

130' 

136 

158 

188 



226 
234 
256 
304 

308 
at end 




A STREET IN SIBERIA. 



Chapter I 
STARTING 

The longer I live the more I airi certain that the great 
difference between men, between the feeble and the power- 
ful, the great and the insignificant, is energy, invincible 
determination — a purpose once fixed, and then death or 

victory. 

Sir T. Fowell Buxton. 

r T was during a visit to Russia in the summer 
A of 1896 that my attention was drawn for 
the first time to the " Great Siberian Railway." 
It existed then only as far as Omsk and had 
not yet been thrown open for passenger traffic. 
People still travelled by tarantass, and no one, 
with the exception of one or two travellers 
following in the footsteps of Dr. Lansdell and 

11 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Mr. Kenan, went to Siberia from choice, for 
travelling there was monotony itself. 

" We hope to complete the railway- in four 
years," said Prince Hilkof when asked how 
long it would be before Japan could be reached 
by rail. " The journey will be an easy one, 
and the buffets will be excellent," he added. 
As he spoke I was seized with a desire not 
merely to take the journey, but to be the 
first Englishwoman to travel by that route to 
Japan. 

On my return to England friends smiled at 
this desire of mine and thought it so mad that 
I ceased to mention it ; but when the time 
drew near I unfolded my plan to my mother 
and asked her to accompany me. This she 
readily agreed to do, being quite as fond of 
travelling as myself. 

We accordingly left London for Paris on 
March 18, 1900, without having explained our 
intentions to any one outside our immediate 
circle. Our friends were thus spared a great 
deal of needless anxiety. For the anxiety they 
did eventually suffer on our account we are 

12 



STARTING 

truly sorry. That Chinese Boxers should make 
their way to the banks of the Amur almost 
simultaneously with our own appearance there 
was a fact that could have entered into no 
one's calculations. 

A halt of six weeks in the French capital 
enabled us not only to brush up our French for 
the journey but also to study the excellent 
maps and models illustrative of our proposed 
route which occupied several rooms in the 
Siberian section of the Exhibition. Throughout 
the month of April the weather was so hot 
that we, like every one else, resorted to summer 
clothing, and packing up our winter garments 
left them behind us. 

Every traveller knows that the less luggage 
you have with you the better, and we were 
delighted to have reduced our luggage to a 
valise, a hold-all, and a tea basket. So far 
so good ; but when, on May 2, we reached the 
Russian frontier our delight began to cool. 
Hotter and hotter grew the carriages, colder 
and colder the air outside, till at last we looked 
out upon a dreary snow scene. Bitter winds 

13 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

were blowing in St. Petersburg and snow lay- 
on the sides of the streets as we drove to our 
destination. It was no wonder that a violent 
attack of influenza kept me in bed four out 
of the six days we spent there. Thanks to 
the great kindness of Prince Hilkof we had 
very little to do ; it was he who had our tickets 
prepared, who provided us with letters of in- 
troduction, the latest guide books, and a splendid 
map of our route. It was indeed a fortunate 
thing for us that the man of all others who 
had it in his power to help us could and did 
sympathize so thoroughly with our project. 

The Czar held his annual military review on 
May 7. All Petersburg turned out to see the 
troops pass, and the Nevsky was brilliant with 
flags and red draperies hung from the windows. 
It was interesting to compare these decorations 
with those we had seen at Berlin three days 
earlier when we had found the townspeople 
wild with excitement about the coming of age 
of their young prince, and with those of Paris 
when the Exhibition of 1900 was declared open, 
and again with those of our own Regent Street 

14 



STARTING 

and Oxford Street after the relief of Lady- 
smith. We thought the Russian decorations 
the most effective ; there was more bright colour, 
chiefly scarlet. 

The Nevsky, a bright and handsome street 
at all times, looked gay indeed as the mounted 
troops passed down it to the Russian Champs 
de Mars. Cuirassiers in white and gleaming 
gold were followed by a regiment all in what 
we call " Prussian blue," but far brighter than 
any blue worn by the Prussian army. Then 
came a regiment in red and black, each man 
carrying a flag, followed by others equally 
striking. 

It took four days to get our luggage through 
the customs, as it had not been examined on 
the frontier. When I grew impatient at the 
delay, my friends said, " You cannot hurry a 
Russian. Never show that you are cross, that 
only makes them worse ; the safest thing is 
to laugh ; it helps you best in the end." So 
I laughed and waited. 

The last afternoon I started out in a sharp 
snowstorm to buy some luggage labels, taking 

15 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

an old one with me as a pattern. After trying 
three shops I found a man who could speak 
German. " Oh, you will never find those things 
here ! No one uses them in Russia," he said. 
So our belongings travelled all the way to 
Yokohama without labels. 

The night express from St. Petersburg to 
Moscow is the best train in Russia ; it carries 
only first-class passengers and is always full 
no matter what the season of the year. 
We had secured a sleeping coupe by telephone, 
but a gentleman had bribed the conductor to 
give it to him instead. A dispute which took 
up an hour and a half of our journey had 
to be gone through before we could get posses- 
sion of it and retire for the night. As it was 
we owed our victory to a gaily dressed officer 
who spoke French and came to the rescue. 
He asked if he might introduce to us a friend 
of his from St. Petersburg, who was also on 
the train, " an Englishman, and very rich." 
After the introduction had taken place the 
Englishman came and chatted with us in our 
cowp£ ; he had seen from our official letter 

16 



STARTING 

that we were going to Siberia, and his interest 
was aroused. 

" Siberia is a dreary place," he said. " Are 
you sure it is wise to go there — two ladies 
alone?" And then turning to me he said, "It 
is a venturesome thing under any circumstances, 
but to start in your state of health is mad- 
ness. You ought to be shut up in a warm 
room and not leave it for a week." I felt 
the truth of these remarks, but it was a case 
of " a purpose once fixed," and we were already 
a week late in starting. 

Our coupe was cold and draughty, but about 
midnight it began to get warmer, and was 
too hot to be pleasant when we woke at about 
five the next morning. Pulling up the blinds 
we looked out on the most exquisite snow scene 
it had ever been our lot to witness. Snow 
was falling in large flakes and must have been 
coming down steadily for hours. The branches 
of fir trees, intermingled with those of others 
still more yielding, were loaded with snow and 
drooped gracefully under its weight, whilst 
every few seconds we saw some branch bent 

17 B 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

right downward and its load scattered and 
dropped through the lower branches like soft 
powder. I felt as if I must be Hans Andersen's 
little girl in the Ice Queen travelling through 
forests of snow ! One breath of ice-cold air 
in that heated carriage would have made it 
a reality, but this was not to be had, and I 
fell asleep again with the feeling that I had 
seen some fairy panorama. 

We found Moscow enjoying a regular April 
day of alternate sun and drenching rain, and 
people were quite surprised to hear us speak 
of snow. Moscow is a typical city of the old 
times and a more picturesque one I never saw. 
From our hotel windows we looked out on a 
vast array of coloured roofs, red and green 
predominating, whilst above all towered many 
glistening golden cupolas. "These cupolas are 
always bright and shining," said an English 
resident, " and yet I never see any one polishing 
them." 

Those who are interested in Moscow should 
read the late Dean Stanley's beautiful letters 
written on the occasion of the Duke of Edin- 

18 



STARTING 

burgh's wedding. We all appreciate the wonder- 
ful charm of the old Russian capital, but it was 
Dean Stanley who had the power to bring its 
beauties before the eyes of those who could 
not come so far. 

Farewell, dear Moscow ; I shall come again 
When I have traversed half the earth and more. 
Tis time to hasten now, for summer's heat 
Too soon might pass, and ice, which half the year 
Doth bind the rivers wide, impede my course. 

Farewell. 




rrnvTx^r - 



19 



Chapter II 

THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

We don't often know in this world sometimes whether 
we are turning off along a road where we shall never come 
back from, or whether we can go just a little way and look 
at the far off hills and new rivers, and come home safe. 

Robbery Under Arms. 

r | ^HE Siberian Express, or Train de Luxe as 
A it is called, leaves Moscow for Irkutsk 
every Saturday evening, whilst the ordinary 
post train leaves daily at 3 p.m. 1 There is no 
difference in the speed of the two trains, but 
by stopping less time at the stations the express 
gains two days on the entire journey. 

We took up our abode in the express on 
Saturday, May 12, and did not emerge from 
it till the following Wednesday evening, when 
we alighted at Omsk station after a journey of 
four days and four nights. We shared a luxuri- 
ous coupe with two other ladies. I retired at 

1 Since the above was written other trains have been added. 

20 




MAP OF T 




MAP OF THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY SYSTEM. 





A 



HE SIBl 



THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

once to my comfortable bed and remained there 
for three days, after which time I was well 
enough to get up. Had I taken that journey, 
ill as I was, in a (< sleeper " on the so highly 
praised Canadian Pacific, I might never have 
lived to tell the tale. Every morning I should 
have been forced to rise at an early hour and 
sit upright for the rest of the weary day on 
the seat into which my bed had been trans- 
formed. Above all, privacy, the luxury that a 
tired traveller covets most of all, would have 
been absolutely unattainable. The Siberian 
express is a kind of " Liberty Hall," where you 
can shut your door and sleep all day if you 
prefer it, or eat and drink, smoke and play 
cards if you like that better. An electric bell 
on one side of your door summons a serving- 
man to make your bed or sweep your floor, as 
the case may be, while a bell on the other side 
summons a waiter from the buffet. Besides the 
ordinary electric lights you are provided with 
an electric reading lamp by which you may read 
all night if you choose. Time passes very pleas- 
antly on such a train, and it is quite possible to 
enjoy the scenery, for there is none of that fear- 

21 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

ful hurry that makes railway travelling so risky 
for body and nerves in Europe and America. Our 
average speed was about sixteen miles an hour. 

At one end of the cheerful dining car was a 
Bechstein piano, and opposite to it a bookcase 
stocked with Russian novels ; doubtless it will 
contain plenty of French and English books in 
time. On the fourth day we had an agreeable 
concert. Amongst the performers were a 
gentleman with a good tenor voice and two 
lady pianists of no ordinary merit. Three por- 
traits adorned the dining car walls — those of 
the Emperor and Empress and that of Prince 
Hilkof — while ferns and flowers gathered by the 
way gave a homelike appearance to the whole. 

We stopped at a great many stations ; indeed 
on some parts of the route we seemed to get 
into a chronic state of stopping. At large 
stations there was often a halt of twenty 
minutes or half an hour. Passengers anxious 
for a change of fare seized such opportunities to 
dine at the station buffet. Card playing went 
on all the time and small sums of money were 
played for. If a Russian sits down to a game 
of cards, nothing but a matter of life and death 

22 



THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

will induce him to stir from it till it is finished. 

"You have yet to learn what a Russian is 
worth when he's playing cards," said a German 
fellow traveller after I had waited two hours 
to get the name of an hotel from a young 
officer. As it was already midnight I gave up 
in despair and retired. The next day I got my 
information from the card player, but it was 
accompanied by no apology. There is a strange 
superstition among the lower classes that if a 
man can manage to get into his possession a 
piece, however small, of the rope with which a 
criminal has been hanged, he will always have 
luck at cards. A few weeks before we arrived 
there a man was hanged at Irkutsk, and a 
peasant, after endless trouble and exertion, 
secured a little bit of the rope, much to the envy 
of his relatives and friends. 

The train was quite full. One lady about 
thirty years of age, who spoke French, told me 
she hated Siberia, and was only going to 
Irkutsk to sell some property. She intended to 
return to St. Petersburg by the next train but 
one ; that is, in less than a fortnight, which 
meant twenty days of railway travelling and a 

23 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

journey of 8,000 miles within a month. Dis- 
tance, like time, counts for nothing in Siberia. 
This lady thought us bold, if not rash, to travel 
without a revolver. " I always carry two," she 
said. Later on the Mayor of Vladivostok, who 
shared the next coupS with the manager of the 
Amur Steamer Company, took out his little 
pocket pistol and handled it fondly. " It saved 
my life once," he said. "You had better get 
one in Omsk if you haven't brought one with 
you." The Mayor told my mother a woeful tale 
of a fall he had had just before leaving 
St. Petersburg. 

" I broke two ribs," he said, " and now I hear 
them crack every time I rise on the cushions 
of the train, which are too springy under the 
circumstances. ' ' 

The conductor was a good-looking man in 
uniform. His position on the train seemed to be 
something like that of a purser on a steamer. 
We tried to find out from him whether there 
was any hotel at Omsk, and what sort of a 
place it was, but the only information we could 
extract was that it was warmer at Irkutsk 
than at Moscow. He knew nothing of Omsk, 

24 



THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

and could not even tell us when we might 
expect to arrive till we were within a few hours 
of the place. 

After a day and two nights of steady travel- 
ling we came in sight of the Volga. All were 
eager to see something of the famous bridge 
over which we were to cross. Some, who 
feared they might not wake at 4 a.m., got up 
before daylight. I myself saw nothing of it 
then, but on another occasion when we passed 
at four on a lovely autumn afternoon I had 
a splendid view standing, while we crossed 
the water, on the platform between two car- 
riages. 

The Alexander bridge was named after 
Alexander II. It has thirteen spans of fifty 
sazhens each, a total length of six hundred and 
fifty sazhens and a distance of more than six 
hundred and seventy-four sazhens between its 
abutments. A sazhen is equal to seven English 
feet. It is built with stone piers on the double 
girder system with parallel chords and a road- 
way upon the lower chord. The rails are laid 
on metal beams. To us it was a bridge of 
delicate iron lace work closing over our heads 

25 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

at regular intervals, with quite a fragile look 
when seen from a distance. It bore a remark- 
able testimony to the beauty of proportion. 

The Volga too was most picturesque at this 
point, and the passengers got a fine view both 
up and down the river, as the train slowly 
crossed the bridge. 

Samara, the first town of interest after 
Moscow, has a population of ninety-one thou- 
sand. I once spent a few days there, and was 
much impressed by the frightful dust storms in 
the streets, the worst I have met with outside 
Siberia. Here I made the acquaintance of a 
lady whose father has a large Kumys Sana- 
torium not far from the town. She told me 
that people suffering from chest complaints 
throng to it from all parts of Russia. The best 
caviar in the world comes from the Volga ; it 
can be had in boxes at Samara station, but is 
very expensive when bought in that way. 
Immediately outside the town there is a large 
cemetery filled with the graves of those who 
died of the terrible plague which visited that 
part of Russia after the famine some years ago. 

26 



THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

There are many people in Samara now who 
lived through that awful time, and it was 
touching to hear them speak with loving 
gratitude of the English Quakers who collected 
money and sent doctors to the poor sufferers. 
Many of the ignorant peasants had a super- 
stitious dread of the doctors, and often attacked 
them so fiercely that it was at the risk of their 
lives that they attended the sick. After the 
train has left the cemetery it runs between 
wide melon fields. Passing this spot in August 
I saw the smooth skins of hundreds of water 
melons glistening in the sunshine. 

The next place of interest is Ufa. This was 
formerly the central town of the Bashkirs, a 
dark Mohammedan race, who, in their days of 
independence, were renowned for their skill in 
shooting arrows. So much did they excel in 
this art that during the campaign of 1813 the 
French gave them the nickname of "The Cupids 
of the North." One still finds them in their 
old haunts, peaceful enough now, though for 
many years after they had sought the pro- 
tection of Russia against the persecution of 

27 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

other neighbours they continued to give the 
Russians a good deal of trouble. The country 
round Ufa is called Baskiria, having derived its 
name from these ancient inhabitants. The town 
was founded by the Russians towards the end 
of the sixteenth century. It has now twenty- 
three churches, with many schools and charitable 
institutions, including a home for the blind. 

Zlatoust in the Ural Mountains is the last 
Russian town through which the train passes. 
The situation is most picturesque, with fir-clad 
mountains as a background. This is the point 
at which travellers should break their journey 
if they wish to spend a few days in the Urals. 
Pleasant excursions can be made in the neigh- 
bourhood, and there are interesting mines to 
be visited, mines whence come so many of our 
precious stones. In Zlatoust itself is a large 
iron foundry. When the Emperor Alexander I. 
came here in 1824 he forged a nail with his own 
hands, and this treasure is still to be seen in 
the local museum. 

As the train comes into the station the pas- 
sengers take out their purses and make a rush 

28 



THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

for the stall at which pretty black ornaments, 
knives and forks, snuff-boxes, and many other 
useful things made of cast iron are temptingly 
displayed by the native traders. The knives 
and forks have a renown of their own ; on the 
blades of the knives are engraved quaint pictures. 
I saw one on which an old woman feeding her 
geese was depicted. Upwards of three thousand 
men are employed in making knives alone. 

I have travelled through this part of the 
Urals three times, but only once had the good 
fortune to do so by day. On that occasion I 
stood for hours at the open window enjoying 
not only the beautiful scenery, but also the 
fresh and invigorating mountain air, very dif- 
ferent from that of the steppe into which the 
wild mountains merge only too soon. Gradu- 
ally the landscape becomes more and more in- 
significant till there is at last nothing for the 
eye to rest on but a wide stretch of grassy 
plain. This is the steppe. 

The appearance of the steppe varies very 
much according to the time of year. With the 
exception of solitary groups of birch trees few 

29 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

and far between, nothing will grow there but 
grass and herbaceous plants of a hardy nature ; 
there is too much salt in the soil. 

You can hardly look out of the windows 
without seeing water somewhere, for lakes, 
large and small, are numerous. This part of 
the steppe alone is said to contain more than a 
thousand ; in most of them the water is salt. 
In some cases a channel connects a fresh water 
lake with one in which the water is brackish. 
A flower which grows on their margin is called 
the salt-wort (Salicornea herbaria). Salt is 
obtained from these lakes by private persons 
who hold them on lease. 

In early spring the grass grows so high that, 
as a lady described it to me, " you can hide 
yourself in it." Many kinds of flowers grow 
there, such as the hyacinth, a dwarf iris with 
a fine scent, and a wild lily. In August the 
grass has disappeared, and all is brown and 
bare, but after the first rains of September 
fresh young blades and flowers cover large 
patches, and offer a pleasing variety to the eye. 

From Oheliabinsk there is a branch line 

30 



THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS 

through the Urals to Ekaterinburg. I travelled 
by it just after it was opened in 1896, and was 
much amused to see the passengers get out 
and pick flowers as the train moved along. 
Ekaterinburg is the border town through which 
all travellers crossing Siberia used to pass 
before there was a railway. I visited an in- 
teresting convent there where the nuns are 
employed in preparing ikons, candles and holy 
bread for the churches. They paint the ikons 
in a regular artist's studio, sitting at easels as 
" to the manner born." For the candles there 
is a manufactory ; the wax is separated into 
shreds and laid out in large trays to bleach in 
the sun, after which it is melted in tubs. It 
was a most entertaining sight to see the nuns, 
with their sleeves tucked up, rolling the candles 
into shape, or rather giving them a final polish 
with their elbows, using the forearm as a kind 
of rolling pin. These enterprising ladies ac- 
tually started horse-breeding, but the priests 
put a stop to it. Ekaterinburg is now a flourish- 
ing modern town with electric lights, tram- 
ways, and many fine public buildings. 

31 



Chapter III 

OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

TT was quite dark long before we reached 
-*■ Omsk, and feeling rather timid we made 
anxious inquiries as to whether any one else 
was stopping there. The conductor took pity 
on us as we were nearing our destination. He 
had all the tickets and knew where every one 
on the train was going. " There is one lady in 
the second class," he said, " who is bound for 
Omsk." 

" For pity's sake," I said, " introduce me to 
her." 

" I am a stranger myself," she told me after 
the introduction had taken place, " but my 
daughter and her husband are coming to meet 
me ; perhaps they could tell you about an 
hotel." 

32 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

In the meantime our other fellow passengers 
did their best to persuade us to abandon the 
idea of seeing Omsk, and go on with them to 
Irkutsk. Horrible things had happened, they 
said. "Remember you are now in Siberia," 
said the conductor warningly. 

The lady going to Omsk was met by several 
friends at the station. They very kindly sug- 
gested that a gentleman of their party should 
drive us to the town, and we were only too glad 
to avail ourselves of the offer. Our cavalier 
was a square, strongly built man, with a kindly 
red face and twinkling dark eyes. He helped 
us both to climb into his little Siberian droshky, 
and telling an " izvoschek " to follow with 
our baggage took his seat in front. We were 
soon jolting along in the dim moonlight over 
very uneven, but stoneless, ground. The only 
buildings in sight looked like barns and cattle 
sheds. I learnt afterwards that many of these 
were temporary shelters for emigrants who 
were obliged to halt there on their way fur- 
ther east. Our new friend, who only spoke 
about three words of German, turned round in 

33 c 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

his seat to reassure us. " I am a Jew," he said 
proudly, " I am a Jew ! " 

Omsk is about four miles from the station, 
and the drive seemed an endless one that cold, 
dark night. We were very glad to find our- 
selves at last in the sheltering inn. To all ap- 
pearances it was the most comfortless place on 
earth, but a stove gave genial warmth to the 
air of our room, and a samovar soon hissed on 
our table. The Jew did not leave us till all 
our wants had been supplied ; he was really 
kindness itself. As soon as he was gone we 
laid our own sheets, rugs and pillows on the 
bare mattresses. There was no need of Keat- 
ings powder, for the weather was still cold 
enough to keep the pest of Siberia in its winter 
hiding place. 

The chief street of Omsk is lined on one side 
with thriving shops, and on the other with a 
succession of tea gardens. Each shop has large 
pictures of its wares painted outside in true 
Russian fashion, a most convenient one for 
foreigners ignorant of the language, as well as 
for the peasant population, who cannot read, 

34 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

there being no display of the goods them- 
selves. 

Before our first morning was over we had 
been kindly welcomed at more than one hos- 
pitable house. Invitations to dinner quickly 
followed, and we soon felt quite at home 
amongst so many kind friends. No one 
seemed to know anything of our Hebrew 
cavalier. 

" Jews are not admitted into society here," 
we were told. The fact is, as I afterwards dis- 
covered, that there is a large community of 
Jews in the town, but they are all more or less 
of the industrial class. 

Driving through the streets we were struck 
with the evident fondness for colour displayed 
by the inhabitants. The log houses, square, 
and mostly of one storey, have either apple 
green roofs or brick-red, with here and there 
a lively blue. We noticed also that the wooden 
frames of the quaint old-fashioned street lamps 
were blue. 

The wife of the German pastor introduced 
us to a gentleman who had lived there for 

35 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

thirteen years. He was curious to know what 
had brought us so far. 

" We have come to see something of Siberian 
life," I said, " for we know very little about it 
in England." " Quite so," he replied quickly, 
"and what you do know is wrong." 

Omsk was once a fortress town, and bits of 
the old fortifications are still to be seen. They 
date back to the year 1765. We are told that 
Lieut. -General Springer, who in 1763 was ap- 
pointed chief of those who guarded the Siberian 
frontier, had the fortress built to instil awe 
into the hearts of the neighbouring Kirgiz and 
all other Asiatics who might prove trouble- 
some. 

Close to the German Pastor s house are some 
underground passages said to be used as a 
habitation by loafers who have no home of 
their own. 

" It must be rather unpleasant to have such 
neighbours," I said. 

" Oh ! they are all right as long as you leave 
them alone," replied the Pastor's wife. 

I asked what those crying sounds were that 

36 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

we heard every evening as we sat in our room 
after dark. 

"It is the camels you hear," was the reply ; 
" they cry just like children at night." 

" So you have camels in Omsk ! " cried my 
mother ; "I have long wished to mount a 
camel." 

"Intelligent people do not mount camels," 
replied the lady. " They are beasts of burden. 
You would see a great many if you were here 
in winter, for the Kirgiz use them to carry 
their goods to market. The legs of these 
animals are tied up in wool and rags to protect 
them from the cold." 

" The Kirgiz are good horsemen," she added ; 
" they often come into the town four on one 
horse." 

" Our churchyards are in a bad state," said 
the Pastor. " I have seen a coffin swim as it 
was being lowered into the ground ; and as for 
trying to decorate a grave it is useless, for 
everything that can possibly be carried away 
is stolen." 

The cadet school is a fine building, with quite 

37 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

an imposing appearance. Groups of merry- 
cadets at the street corners remind you that 
you are not yet outside the pale of civilization. 
There is a boys' gymnasium and also one for 
girls. Young people from all the country 
round come to Omsk for their education. 
Every year some new building is added to the 
town, or some garden laid out. The present 
governor, Lieut. -General Sannikof, has done 
a great deal for the place by persuading private 
individuals to plant trees and to have an eye 
to external appearances. The old wooden 
bridge over the Om is soon to be replaced by 
an iron one, and the streets will be paved in 
time. In short it is clear that Omsk, with its 
rivers, its railway, and its growing population, 
has a grand future in store in spite of the fact 
that it lies in the centre of so vast a steppe. 

The river Irtish supplies the inhabitants with 
many kinds of fish unknown in England. We 
were particularly advised to ask for " nelma," 
and found it excellent. 

The Empress is not forgotten in Omsk. Her 
name day was the occasion of a great holiday. 

38 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

Church bells woke us in the early morning with 
their peals. We found all the government 
buildings decorated with flags. Madame Sanni- 
kof gave a dinner at which we were present. 
Conversation was carried on briskly in Russian, 
French, German and English. Afterwards, 
when coffee was served in the garden, Madame 
Sannikof showed us some exquisite lace made 
by the little girls in her orphan school ; specimens 
of it had been sent to the Siberian section of 
the Paris Exhibition. 

Every one laughed heartily over the warn- 
ings we had received about coming to Omsk ; 
and the Governor himself, to whom every evil 
deed has been reported by the chief of police 
for the last ten years, assured us that we could 
not have come to a safer place, or a more 
peaceful one. 

The winter season is the most agreeable. 
Crisp cold weather with plenty of snow and 
sunshine, and an absence of those biting winds 
we know in Europe, make life a pleasure 
here. 

" It would take very little wind to blow that 

39 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

away," said one lady, looking at my mother b fur 
cloak ; and then she showed me hers, lined with 
what looked like the back of an unshorn sheep 
in spring time. 

" How can you move with such a weight on 
you ? " I asked in surprise. 

" Oh, that is nothing ; one does not notice it," 
she replied. 

During the coldest days the thermometer 
often stands at 38° Reaumur, while in summer 
35° of heat is not unusual. With so few trees 
and hardly any rain for weeks together the 
country gets very much dried up and the return 
of winter is hailed with delight. 

Close to our hotel was the Tatar mosque, so 
prominent that I at first mistook it for a 
Russian church. When a " Mullah " appeared 
upon the little round balcony on the tower and 
began to give the Mohammedan call for prayer, 
I discovered my mistake. Then, too, I noticed 
the golden crescent glittering in the sunlight 
above the "Mullah's" head. After all, the Tatars 
are the oldest inhabitants of Siberia, and it 
seems only fair that they should be allowed 

40 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

a respectable place of worship in their native 
land. 

The Kirgiz, who are Mohammedans, also 
come to the mosque. They, like the Tatars, 
belong to the Turki race, and speak a Turkish 
dialect. According to the latest statistics they 
number about a million souls. 

There are many native tribes in Siberia of 
whose origin, manners and customs very little, 
if anything, is known to the civilized world. 
Archaeological research, which was begun in 
the eighteenth century, has wellnigh proved 
that Central Asia was their original home. 
Tumuli, ruins of ancient towns and other traces 
have been found along the course of the great 
Siberian rivers, all starting from Central Asia 
and extending northward. 

The present Emperor takes a personal interest 
in all the different types of humanity to be 
found in his vast domains, and this is saying a 
great deal, for their name is legion. When, as 
Czarowich, the Emperor visited Omsk on his 
way through Siberia, he gave an order to the 
chief photographer there, a German settler, 

41 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

to prepare him an album with photographs of 
Kirgiz, Ostiacs, and other types that are to 
be found in western and northern Siberia. 
The photographer undertook the work with 
enthusiasm. He visited the Ostiacs of the 
Tobolsk government and returned with many 
fine photographs of great interest, showing not 
only the types of face but also the customs of 
the country, marriage feasts, religious festivals, 
and such like. He then visited the Kirgiz 
living on the steppe stretching southward from 
the Omsk government, of which Omsk is the 
chief town. The album was unquestionably 
appreciated by His Imperial Majesty, for the 
photographer showed us with pride a letter of 
thanks which his royal visitor had sent him on 
receipt of it. This letter is framed and hangs 
as the chief ornament of his studio walls. At 
my earnest request the man made a search 
among his packed away photographs and 
brought to light several copies of those in the 
album. 

In order to see anything of real Kirgiz life 
one must drive far out into the steppe and visit 

42 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

the houses of families who have not yet become 
" Russianized." Our Hebrew friend kindly- 
offered to drive us out to a farm of his that 
was close to a Kirgiz village. We accepted 
gladly, for this gave us a chance of making a 
closer acquaintance with the steppe and the 
Kirgiz at the same time. 

After a drive of several miles we came to a 
cemetery, in the centre of which stood a white- 
washed saint's tomb with a green roof. The 
graves round it were modest mounds covered 
with grass. Very soon we came upon herds 
of cattle grazing far and wide at their own 
sweet will, with no hedge or boundary to stop 
them. Wild looking Kirgiz boys rode fiercely 
among them on small hardy-looking horses. 
One of them who was in want of a match 
rode up to us and asked for a light for his 
cigar. 

We first drove to the farm to ask for a 
samovar, which was brought out to us as we 
rested under the shade of a group of white 
birch trees which formed an oasis in the desert. 
Happily for us it was not midsummer, for the 

43 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

tiny leaves afforded little shade from the sun. 
The slender stems of these graceful trees are 
covered with a delicate white bark resembling 
the kid of a lady's glove. 

After tea, or rather after a picnic in the 
lovely fresh air of the steppe — for our friend's 
daughter, who made one of the party, had 
brought with her a basket of home-made 
dainties, we started on foot for the Kirgiz 
village. On the way we passed some fields 
of what I took at first to be tobacco. On closer 
inspection I discovered that it was vermuth, or 
absinth, an herb which grows to perfection 
on the peculiar steppe soil. 

The Kirgiz live in a kind of hut, much the 
shape of our beehives, with a round hole in the 
centre, which serves both as a chimney and an 
air hole. If it rains, a skin is thrown over this 
opening. The " yurta," as these dwellings are 
called, are made partly of wood and a kind of 
trellis work covered with hides and felt, and 
can be taken to pieces at short notice. When 
their nomadic possessors wish to follow their 
herds to fresh pastures they pack up their huts 

44 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

and transport them with the greatest ease. 
Each " yurta " is placed so that its entrance 
faces the east. The price of a poor man's 
" yurta," covered with grey felt, is estimated at 
about £5, or even less, whilst one of the richer 
class, variously ornamented inside and out, will 
sometimes cost £15, or even more. 

The Kirgiz are acknowledged by all who 
come in contact with them to be the best- 
natured people on the face of the earth. The 
only sin of which I have heard them accused 
is horse stealing ; they have a great weakness 
for other people's horses. I am afraid they are 
not always as kind to their own as they should 
be. Their women plait horsehair into ropes ; 
as they do not rot they find them very useful 
for their tents, and even use them as reins for 
their horses. 

Kirgiz horses fly like the wind, and are 
restrained with difficulty. They can journey 
for ten hours without food ; they bear every 
severity of climate, and have been known to 
cover a distance of twenty versts at the rate 
of half a mile a minute. We heard a vivid 

45 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

description of how, when the Governor of Omsk 
was travelling over the steppe in a tarantass 
drawn by Kirgiz horses, it took several persons 
to hold them in while the driver mounted to 
his seat. Then, when all was ready, the men 
on either side let go the reins at a given signal 
and bounded to right and left as the horses 
flew from their control to continue their wild 
career for miles without a break. 

We entered several " yurta," and found them 
all very much alike. There was always an iron- 
bound box containing the household treasures, 
an old woman mending clothes or washing 
dishes, a child or two, clad or otherwise, and a 
young calf tethered by a rope to the inside of 
the "yurta." I was particularly interested to 
find each home had also its own musical in- 
strument, a roughly made and very primitive 
guitar, to the accompaniment of which the 
young people were taught to sing. 

The younger women wear a strange white 
linen headdress covering the greater part of the 
face, with openings for eyes, nose and mouth, 
the forehead and chin being entirely covered. 

46 



w* # w . I 


1 

■1 


-wW 






m WeUm 


; 


jHB&flLT^jaluaM <% 



2 



OMSK— A VISIT TO THE KIRGIZ 

The greater part of their cooking is done out 
of doors. Approaching a hole, which at first 
sight I took to be a freshly dug child's grave, 
I found that in one end of it a wood fire 
had been built, while the other end was used 
as an oven. 

They make a great deal of Kumys from mares' 
milk and keep it in goatskin bottles. Russians 
buy it from them and drink it as a tonic in 
spring time. 

The men wear heavy-looking sheepskin hats 
at all seasons of the year : in fact, they wear a 
heavier kind in summer than in winter, with 
flaps to protect them from the sun. They spend 
their lives in cattle breeding, and their herds are 
their one interest in life. When a man meets 
a friend he inquires first, not after the health 
of his wife and family, but after that of his 
cattle ! 

Returning to our hotel in the evening, we 
were struck with the picturesque appearance of 
the town, especially by the river Irtish, whose 
banks were lit up with a thousand twinkling 
lights. The train crosses it by a fine bridge a few 

47 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

minutes before steaming into Omsk station, and 
one has a good view of its waters. The Irtish is 
a noble river; rising in China, it flows northward 
into the Arctic Ocean. This fact alone gives 
some idea of its importance. All along its banks, 
from Tobolsk in the north to the mountains 
bordering on Turkestan, it has the wild Kirgiz 
steppe. The mountains of the steppe contain 
almost every kind of precious metal, gold 
included. All this treasure has as yet been 
untouched by the hand of man. 




*nn :> A»ii 



A TARANTASS 



48 



Chapter IV 

THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

T T 7"E had not been long in Siberia before we 
* * knew from experience that the only 
way to enjoy life was to give ourselves over 
entirely to a state of blissful uncertainty about 
everything in the future. If people told us 
when a train would arrive or when a steamer 
would start, they invariably told us wrong. Any 
information gleaned in one town about another 
to which we were going was sure to be flatly 
contradicted on our arrival. Of course this 
could be partly accounted for by the great dis- 
tances. When a town is separated from its 
nearest neighbour by a railway journey, say, of 
two nights and three days, it certainly has 
some excuse on its side. Still, after having 
made your home for several days in a comfort- 
able railway carriage, or a yet more comfortable 

49 d 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

house boat, it is somewhat trying to arrive 
without warning at your destination several 
hours before the time you expected to get there, 
or to have to unpack and spend another night 
in a carriage you had expected to leave at mid- 
day. 

We left Omsk by the post train which ought 
to have started at 9.30 p.m., according to the 
time table. It was only four hours late, a mere 
nothing in Siberia, where time is not money. 
As we sat waiting at the station the good news 
was brought us that Maf eking had been relieved. 
The bearer of these tidings was the Finnish 
Pastor, who had only an hour before received 
word by telegram from Finland. The Finns 
have all along shown great sympathy with the 
English with regard to the Transvaal war. 
Pastor Erikson met us with a hearty hand- 
shake and a beaming face. A burst of military 
music close at hand seemed very opportune to 
our English ears. We looked out and saw a 
pretty sight. Under the bright electric light on 
the platform from which we were to start 
gleamed the white hats and jackets of some 

50 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

thirty bandsmen. Their music was in honour 
of the colonel of their regiment, who, after a 
period of twenty-four years service at Omsk, 
was leaving with his family for a better appoint- 
ment at Irkutsk. v 
The train seemed to carry music with it as it 
glided into the station, and the crowded plat- 
form was a whirl of gaiety and excitement. All 
this in the middle of the night ! We found our 
coupS on the post train not less comfortable than 
the one we had occupied on the express. The 
cushions were all covered with neat washing 
covers, and looked tolerably clean. Under the 
window was a little folding table which was 
most useful for reading and writing. I speak of 
the window because there was only a window at 
one end of the carriage. Like the express, the 
post is also a corridor train. The door opening 
into the corridor had a mirror in place of a 
window ; it opened outwards and could be 
fastened back against the outer wall when we 
wished to travel with it open. The mirror was 
useless when the door was shut, as one stood in 
one's own light when looking into it. We 

51 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

occasionally went out into the corridor to com- 
plete our toilette when a glass was indispens- 
able. This however was not so bad as in 
Canada, where I have seen a gentleman shaving 
in the public " sleeper." The corridor was so 
wide that the stoutest traveller could promenade 
in it with ease. On wet days we could get a walk 
here of about twenty-five paces ; seats could be 
opened out from the walls between the win- 
dows as in the express, and passengers' used to 
congregate here in the evenings when it was 
too dark to read. 

The post train has no dining car, and we were 
obliged to keep a sharp look out for stations 
where there was something to eat. The first 
day after leaving Omsk we passed a buffet 
station about 11 a.m., but, being asleep, did not 
take advantage of it. 

" You must be hungry," said a fellow passen- 
ger pityingly about seven in the evening ; " but 
we shall reach Kainsk in about an hour, and 
there is a good buffet there." Just then the 
train began to pull up. It soon came to a dead 
stop. There was no human habitation in sight. 

52 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

11 The engine has smashed up," said a jolly 
Russian sailor in broken English, (he was bound 
for Port Arthur). " She is sixty years old," he 
continued. " She was made in Glasgow. She is 
no use any more." 

The conductor had got out. He came along 
the line and confirmed what the sailor had said. 
The other passengers did not seem to mind ; they 
were soon exploring the neighbourhood. The 
children from the fourth class began to paddle 
barefoot in a muddy stream not far from the 
line. The poor old engine was now " towed to 
her last berth." I had whipped out my " Kodak" 
and taken her photograph thinking of Turner's 
"Fighting Temeraire." 

After a delay of two hours a fresh engine 
arrived from Kainsk and we reached the buffet 
at last. Never again, we vowed, would we be 
subject to such pangs of hunger as we suffered 
that day ; in future we took care to have some 
food always with us, if it was only a loaf of 
bread. The serving man was willing for a few 
kopeks to fetch us hot water at the stations, 
so that with the help of bread and tea there 
was no need to starve. 

53 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

After a journey of fifty hours we alighted at 
Taiga, from which station runs the branch line 
to Tomsk. Here we were told we should have 
nine hours to wait. Entering the waiting-room 
we found it filled with weary travellers who had 
been waiting twenty-four hours for a train ! 
We whiled away part of the time with drinking 
coffee and writing. Then, just as we had got 
out our pillows and were preparing to have a 
sleep, the Tomsk train was announced. All our 
precious belongings had to be bundled into 
the carriage packed or unpacked. It was now 
9 p.m. At 1 a.m. we reached Tomsk. 

We thought Taiga one of the prettiest 
stations in Siberia. It is only a few years old, 
built something after the style of a Swiss 
chalet. The country round is covered with 
forest, from which (" taiga ") the place derives 
its name. The wife of an engineer who 
superintends part of the line told us that she 
would not exchange her little log home in the 
wild forest for any other in the world. From 
her description it must be a paradise in spring 
time. Where the trees cover the ground less 

54 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

thickly lovely flowers spring up, and, if I may 
trust my authority, the rarest orchids grow 
there in wild profusion. 

Before the days of the railway, Tomsk, 
conveniently situated on the river Tom, was the 
great centre of all Siberian trade. Immense 
quantities of corn still pass through its markets 
every year and the wealthiest merchants reside 
there. After a long drive from the station we 
reached Hotel Europe about 2 a.m., very cold 
and very tired. Our train being expected, 
the waiters had not gone to bed. There were 
plenty of them, but a more untidy set I never 
saw. The room they gave us was large but 
very dirty. During the night a mouse ran 
about the floor ; it was nibbling something under 
the table while we were still sitting by it, 
and there was an unpleasant sound of gnawing. 

" We keep twelve cats," said the head waiter 
apologetically when we complained of the 
disturbance, but they seem rather afraid of 
the mice themselves." 

In spite of the discomfort of our hotel we 
stayed several days in Tomsk, for there was 

55 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

much to see. Professor Kruger kindly promised 
to take us over the University, and driving to 
meet him there we got a good idea of the 
general appearance of the town. There are 
many large stone buildings, amongst which we 
noticed an Academy of Music and a newly built 
gymnasium for girls ; but the private houses are 
built of logs and have generally one story. 
The woodwork in front of the windows and 
doors is often carved very prettily ; it has the 
appearance of a kind of fretwork. There are 
no old wooden houses, for these dwellings, if they 
escape fire, fall into decay before they have 
stood many years, and fresh ones have to be 
built in place of them, as they are seldom 
thought worth repairing. High buildings of 
this kind would be most unsafe to live in, for a 
house once on fire burns to the ground in no 
time. Every town has its fire station with a 
high turret surrounded by a balcony. In 
Tomsk there are several. Here watchmen 
stand day and night with field glasses ready to 
spy out the first gleam of fires and give the 
alarm to the men in the stable beneath, where 

56 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

horses stand always in harness, ready to dash to 
the rescue. These horses are specially chosen 
for the purpose. " They only know how to 
galop," I was told, when I visited one of the 
stations. As we spoke about them the in- 
telligent creatures waiting there so patiently 
looked up into our faces with an expression in 
their dark eyes which seemed to say, " Yes, we 
are quite ready." 

Only a week before our arrival there were six 
fires in one day. Several poor women had gone 
to the river to do their household washing. On 
their return they found nothing but ashes 
where their houses had stood. A year ago 
there was a very sad case. A widow returning 
home after an absence of a few hours found 
that not only her house but also her only child 
had been burnt. The unhappy mother's brain 
could not stand the shock ; she became a helpless 
idiot. She has never had a settled home since 
that day, but wanders through the streets with 
a staff in her hand and a wreath of flowers 
round her unkempt head. When people speak 
kindly to her she gives a wild laugh and says 

57 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

she is the happiest creature in the world. One 
is reminded of the old song, "When sorrow 
sleepeth, wake it not." 

The pretty young wife of a German photo- 
grapher told me that when she and her husband 
first came to settle in Siberia four years ago, 
they did not want to insure their property, for 
of course people have to pay in proportion to 
the risk, and it comes very expensive. How- 
ever, one day, not long after their arrival, the 
wife looked out of her window and saw several 
houses burning ; she ran to the other side of the 
house, but only to see more houses on fire in 
that direction. This was too much for her 
nerves, and she became quite hysterical in spite 
of her husband's efforts to reassure her. They 
soon discovered that the houses had been set on 
fire by a set of good-for-nothing people, such as 
abound in Siberian towns, in order that they 
might steal what they could during the panic. 
When the photographer discovered in addition 
that there were signs of an attempt having been 
made on his own back door, he hesitated no 
longer, but went the very next morning to pay 

58 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

in his insurance money. It is no uncommon 
thing for a whole village to be burnt down by- 
vagrants wishing to plunder. 

We saw several buildings of red brick in the 
course of construction. There were many- 
women among the bricklayers ; they were 
working as busily as any of their male com- 
panions. None of the streets were paved. 
Indeed I never saw a paved street in Siberia. 
Every droshky raises a cloud of smoke-like 
dust. If you are within fifty yards of it, you get 
smothered. I found my " khaki " blouses were 
invaluable ; there is no material that bears dust 
and mud so well. I say mud, because that was the 
natural alternative. As soon as it began to rain 
there was mud, and after a wet night it was not 
unusual to find a pond several feet deep in 
the centre of one of the chief streets. Your 
driver never flinches, but takes his droshky 
through the shallows at a headlong gallop. 
We used to hold on to the sides and shut our 
eyes in anticipation of a cold bath. Wherever I 
went my military dress caused great interest. 
More than one Russian officer observed its red 

59 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

facings and asked if it was really an imitation 
of the British soldier s dress. One gentleman 
became quite excited : " Ah," he said, " I have 
just been reading an article about that in my 
paper; but have you not also a khaki hat?" 

"No," I replied, "I unfortunately left England 
before they came into fashion." 

The best streets in Tomsk have side walks 
made of boarding, but the wood is so roughly 
nailed together that there are plenty of gaps to 
twist an unwary foot. If in an absent fit you 
happened to step from the side walk into the 
road without waiting till you came to a stepping 
place, the drop of half a yard would not be 
agreeable, even if you missed breaking your 
ankle. 

In the poorer streets men and women sat 
lazily smoking at their doorways. The poor of 
Siberia are the laziest in the world. For six 
months of the year whole families shut them- 
selves into their hovels and go to sleep on top 
of the kitchen stove. Too idle to work they 
prefer sleeping to the expensive luxury of 
eating. A man who sleeps all day naturally 

60 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

needs far less food than one who spends his 
time in manual labour. 

The University stands in its own grounds 
and has an imposing though not beautiful 
appearance. The very thought of a University 
in Siberia is impressive. The building was 
inaugurated on July 22, 1888, the name day of 
the Empress Maria Feodorovna. 

The teaching faculty is divided into two 
branches — that of law, and that of medicine. Of 
the five hundred students now studying there, 
about three hundred and fifty are medical. 

Unlike other Russian Universities Tomsk 
receives by far the greater number of its students 
direct from ecclesiastical seminaries, and a 
comparatively small proportion from public 
schools. Twenty poor students receive three 
hundred roubles each yearly from a special 
Government fund till they have completed their 
course. Sixty-four scholarships for the whole 
course have been created through private 
donations, and in 1899, in addition to these, two 
hundred and forty-two pupils were supported 
by private individuals. 

61 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Government scholars have a residence allotted 
to them in the University grounds. Here the 
sum of twelve roubles a month is paid for each 
inclusive. The rooms are built to accommodate 
some one student, some two. 

The uniform worn by the students consists of 
a double-breasted coat of thick grey cloth with 
two rows of military-looking brass buttons in 
front, and a blue cloth collar. No linen collar 
is worn, and the young men whose heads are 
not closely cropped wear their hair long 
and shaggy. Many have beards and altogether 
discard the use of the razor. Their appearance 
is not prepossessing. 

The lecture rooms on the first and second 
floor respectively open out upon wide corridors 
which run along the entire length of the build- 
ing. These are heated throughout the winter, 
that is from October to June, and being 
furnished with double windows are entirely 
free from draughts. 

There is a well stocked library of some 
2,500 books. Here we found rare treasures 
hardly to be met with elsewhere — exquisite 

62 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

pastels of Herculanean frescoes from the 
collection of Count Strogonof — a choice col- 
lection of pictures showing the different styles 
of dress worn by ladies of the French and 
English Courts from the time of Charlemagne 
onwards (the price of this collection was 3,000 
francs) ; a translation of Lucretius into French 
by Le Grange, entitled La Nature des Choses, 
printed on parchment with beautiful engrav- 
ings opposite every page (for this book, pub- 
lished in 1768, Count Strogonof paid 2,730 
francs), and a collection of copies of the most 
famous cameos of classical times done in silver. 
There are only three in existence : one is in 
the possession of the Duke of Marlborough. 
These are only a few of the literary treasures 
that were displayed before our eyes by the 
kindly professor who acts as chief librarian. 

The museum of mineralogy contains much 
that is of interest to travellers. Models of 
the largest nuggets of gold that have as yet 
been taken from Siberian mines — gold crystals 
in all manner of shapes, preserved in tiny 
glass bottles ; fossil fish and leaves of trees 

63 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

essentially Siberian ; a set of huge mammoth 
bones almost complete, found quite close to the 
town — fine ammonites ; specimens of minerals 
still unsought, from the Altai mountains ; more 
than I can attempt to enumerate here. 

In the museum of zoology we saw a remark- 
able collection of native birds interesting both 
to the naturalist and to the sportsman. 1 

It was impossible to see all in one visit, so 
Professors Kruger and Sapoznikof kindly gave 
us their help on the following day, when we pro- 
ceeded to explore the Botanical Gardens and the 
hothouses. It was curious to see our English 
plants and trees nursed and cared for as rarities 
in this far off land. We noticed a plant or two 
of rhubarb struggling against the diversities of 
climate. There was a bed of firs, such as we 
use for Christmas trees in Europe, all dwarfed 
and stunted like so many sickly children pining 
for their native land. Of course these must 

1 Professor Kruger, who was our guide here, is himself 
an enthusiastic sportsman ; he gave us an entertaining 
account of some of his expeditions, and of the sport to be 
had among the thickly wooded hills by which Tomsk is 
so picturesquely surrounded. 

64 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

not be confounded with the many kinds of fir 
which, while they grow to the greatest perfec- 
tion in Siberia, are in their turn unknown in 
Europe. 

From Professor Sapoznikof we gleaned much 
interesting information. This gentleman has 
considerable repute as a botanist, and his 
account of his travels in the Altai is one of 
the most valuable works on the flora of that 
district. We saw and plucked a leaf of the 
Allium victorialis, a kind of bulbous herb which 
the peasants use medicinally ; they call it 
" Colba." Lime trees do not grow further east 
than Tobolsk except in a small space in the 
Altai, and in the Amur region ; neither is the 
oak to be found between the Urals and the 
Amur. The tree above all others which abounds 
in Siberia is the white birch (Betula alba). 
You can hardly describe a landscape without 
mentioning it. 

In one of the fern houses I noticed a specimen 
of our rhododendron ; it and the peony grow 
wild in some parts of the Altai. The ranunculus 
abounds in Central Siberia and grows to per- 

65 e 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

fection ; its colouring is much richer here than 
with us. 1 Pliny gave the ranunculus its name 
" because some grow where frogs abound." We 
saw no frogs. Violets also are plentiful ; but 
they have no scent. 

Fruit does not thrive in Siberia ; in fact, with 
the exception of wild strawberries and one or 
two kinds of berries, there may be said to be 
none. From the 9th of May till the 3rd of July 
we neither tasted nor saw any fruit except 
oranges and lemons. These had been brought 
by train from Sicily. The price of an orange 
was sixpence, of a lemon threepence. A lady 
whose home is on the Amur told me she had 
not seen a cherry or any such fruit for thirty 
years. In winter there is very little rain, 
always snow, snow, snow; and as the long 
winter merges suddenly into a hot summer, 
fruits have no chance. The only month that 
is entirely free from frost is July. 



1 We heard an amusing story of an Englishman who 
travelling in Siberia on business, noticed these flowers 
from the train windows. "Are they the same kind of 
primrose that we get in England ? " he asked* 

66 



THE POST TRAIN— TAIGA— TOMSK 

The flower beds in front of the University were 
still empty. Professor Sapoznikof explained to 
us that flowers would be killed by frost if put 
out before the end of the first week in June. 
Last winter a woman in Tomsk summoned 
another for having knocked her with the corner 
of a block of frozen milk which she was carry- 
ing to the market. This story gives some idea 
of the temperature. There are many months of 
the year during which milk has to be dealt 
with as a solid rather than a liquid. It is 
even customary to deliver it at the houses in 
blocks. 

Before leaving the University we visited 
Professor Kruger's chemical and physical 
laboratories. Many students were at work 
there, and they almost elbowed each other 
for want of space. As the Professor pointed 
out to us, more space is sadly needed. It is to 
be hoped that this want will be met ere long 
by the help of those Siberian millionaires who 
have shown such splendid generosity in the 
past. No less than ten of these gentlemen 
are said to be now residing in Tomsk. It 

67 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

is interesting to note that the most liberal 
contributor to the University funds so far has 
been an exiled Pole. There is yet another 
difficulty that students in this department 
have to cope with. Sometimes, when engaged 
in making important experiments, they are 
brought to a dead stop for the want of 
some trifle that, owing to the long distances, 
it will take them months to procure. This 
is very disheartening to a man whose heart 
is in his work. 

In 1899 there was yet another obstacle to 
steady work among the students. In common 
with those of other Russian universities they 
were "on strike " from February till June ! Let 
us hope that they are behaving more sensibly 
during the present crisis. 



68 



Chapter V 

THE PRISONS OF TOMSK— THE 
MYSTERIOUS HERMIT 

|Y* NGLISH people are always ready to hear 
^^ about the Siberian prisons. They expect 
something weird, horrible and thrilling. When 
I returned home after my first visit to Siberia, 
the editor of a well known magazine returned 
an article I had written on the prisons of Tobolsk 
because it was " not sufficiently thrilling " ; and 
a young German who has business in Tomsk, 
when he heard that I had been over the prisons 
there, said, " There is nothing interesting about 
them, they are too well managed. It would be 
much more to the point if you went over the 
prisons in Germany ! " 

The first person we called on after our arrival 
in Tomsk was Baron Aminof , to whom we had 

69 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

brought an introduction. He was not at home, 
but returned our call the following day, and in 
the course of conversation we mentioned that 
we should like to see the prisons. He replied 
that it could be easily managed, and kindly 
drove with us then and there to the house of 
the Procuror — M. Nenarokonof. That gentle- 
man received us in a most friendly manner, and 
hearing what we wanted and that our time was 
short, put on his military hat and coat and 
escorted us direct to the criminal prison. 

The warders, keys in hand, received the pro- 
curor with low obeisance, and he began a round 
of inspection, we following. We walked in 
upon the prisoners just as they were. Every- 
thing was in the most beautiful order, and the 
deal boards of the floors were spotlessly clean. 
Each man had his own bedding, with the board 
which served him as a bedstead chained neatly 
back to the wall, and every one had his own 
stool to sit on. 

The men in each compartment, hearing foot- 
steps, arranged themselves quickly into two 
lines, and saluted the Procuror with a unani- 

70 



THE PRISONS OF TOMSK 

mous " good-day sir." There they stood, young 
and old together, some white-headed, some 
mere youths. Every eye was fixed on the 
Procuror ; the lady visitors raised only a 
secondary interest. Many of the men had pink 
papers in their hands, which they eagerly held 
out for inspection. The Procuror looked at 
each carefully, and listened patiently to all they 
had to say to him. With some he had quite a 
long conversation. There was never a sign of 
hurry, and each criminal looked into his face 
as into that of a friend who had the power and 
the wish to help him. 

After we had passed through five or six 
common "baraks," we came to the cells for 
solitary confinement. " You had better not 
come in here," said the Procuror as the warder 
unlocked one of the cells. " The man is a bad 
character ; he was condemned to penal servitude, 
escaped, and killed two families." We remained 
outside watching the prisoner's face as he talked 
earnestly with the Procuror. He was quite a 
young man, and there was nothing in his 
appearance to indicate the enormity of his 

71 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

crime, except the fact that he was heavily 
chained. 

When we had been all round, and were 
returning across the courtyard to our droshkies, 
we saw this man again. Though he was still in 
fetters the chain between his ankles was caught 
up to his belt, and he seemed to walk as freely 
as we did. I started back involuntarily as he 
came quickly up to us and again talked 
earnestly to the Procuror. 

"It is touching to see how these poor men 
confide in you and tell you their grievances," 
said my mother, when the man had left us. "I 
have heard of people being hard with them, but 
hardness would not create trust like this." 

" Hard ! " replied the Procuror, and there was 
a tender ring in his voice as he spoke — "how 
could any one be hard with poor creatures like 
these ? " 

Passing down one of the passages I suddenly 
started back at the sight of a man's face which 
appeared unexpectedly at what looked like a 
dark hole in the wall. A smile on the Pro- 
curor's face reassured me as a volume of words 

72 



THE PRISONS OF TOMSK 

unintelligible to us issued from the apparition's 
mouth. 

11 That is a prisoner in his cell," he explained. 
" It is the only cell that has no windows. When 
a man breaks prison rules, quarrels with the 
other prisoners, or is difficult to manage, we 
shut him up there for a day or two. 

The warder now unlocked the door, and the 
vociferating occupant of the cell walked out as 
quietly as a lamb. He had a great deal to say, 
and he had time to say it, for the Procuror, 
putting his hand on his shoulder, waited till he 
had quite finished. Then of his own accord he 
walked back into the dark cell, and the door 
was again locked. 

" Are the prisoners allowed to sing ? " my 
mother asked. 

" There is no rule against their singing," 
replied the Procuror, looking rather puzzled at 
the question. 

We went into the church attached to the 
prison and saw that its interior was bright with 
coloured windows, gilded ikons and all the other 
orthodox decorations of the Greek church. The 

73 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

prisoners are marched into it for worship on 
Sundays and holy days. The Greek church has 
innumerable holy days, as we learned to our 
cost. How often after days of travelling did we 
arrive at our destination to find all the shops 
shut, and the people out for a holiday ! 

A suite of rooms on the top floor of the prison 
was set apart for the sick. Here we found a 
trained nurse, in a clean white cap and " over- 
all," attending to the patients. 

In the wide corridors were long deal tables, 
where the men had their meals. They assem- 
bled for their evening meal just as we were 
leaving. 

" Listen," said the Procuror : " you asked if 
they were allowed to sing ; they are singing now 
before their meal." 

We drew near and heard the deep voices of a 
hundred men as they chanted their evening 
hymn. 

" It is ' Our Father ' they are singing," said 
the Procuror. " There is One Father for us all." 

The next day we went over the forwarding 

prisons. Prince S , who is at the head of the 

74 



THE PRISONS OF TOMSK 

Tomsk police, kindly acted as the guide, as the 
Procuror was prevented from coming. Unlike 
the criminal prisons, which are of stone, these 
are constructed of logs. 1 Begun in 1891 they 
took three years to build, and their total cost 
was five hundred thousand roubles. Since the 
railway to Irkutsk has been opened there has 
been no need of them, for the bulk of the 
prisoners are now taken by rail direct, and do 
not go through Tomsk at all. Formerly they 
were brought in prison barges, by way of 
Tobolsk. 

The prisons consisted of a number of square 
log houses with a good space between each (a 
precaution against fire) and a high wall enclosing 
the whole. It was not unlike a group of alms- 
houses. We found very few prisoners. 

" You do not see it as Mr. Kenan saw it," said 

Prince S . It was crowded in his days. 

" Now that there is no need of forwarding 
prisons, we are going to turn them into a 
hospital for the town. 

1 Log buildings have been proved to be healthier than 
stone ones for many reasons. 

75 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

As I wanted to photograph some of the 

prisoners Prince S kindly allowed several of 

them to come out into the sunshine and stand 
in front of their prison. This made a nice 
break in a long morning for them, and they 
evidently relished it. The warder, at my 
request, placed himself obligingly before the 
door to complete the picture. 

As all the inmates eventually move on to 
more distant spots the arrangements of a for- 
warding prison differ from those of one in 
which the prisoners remain till their release. 
In some rooms we saw the wives of criminals 
who were accompanying their husbands of their 
own free will. Many had three or four children 
round them, and often a baby in arms. The 
babies looked sickly, and there were several 
little ones on whose faces we saw the stamp 
of death. " These long journeys," said Prince 

S , are very hard for small children. They 

cannot stand the severities of the climate and 
the sudden changes of temperature." 

We went down into the ice house and saw 
huge blocks of ice that are never allowed to 

76 



THE PRISONS OF TOMSK 

melt, no matter how powerfully the sun may- 
shine upon the turf which covers them. Food 
to be kept cold is lowered by a kind of lift into 
the centre, round which there is a passage wide 
enough for a man to pass easily. The outer 
wall of this passage is composed of ice blocks. 

Then we went to see the disinfecting rooms. 
The prisoners' clothes are taken in at a door and 
pushed through a hole in the wall. After the 
process of disinfecting has taken place, they are 
removed from the inner compartment through 
a hole in its opposite wall. 

The weight of the chains worn by the pris- 
oners differs considerably : the ordinary weight 
is from six to ten pounds. Every prisoner is 
allowed to bring baggage with him up to the 
weight of thirty pounds, but it all has to be 
disinfected — a rule which must meet with the 
heartiest approval from all who know anything 
of the state in which Russian peasants live. 
The cleanliness of their prisons must seem 
strange to them at first. 

One of the pleasantest memories we have of 
Tomsk is that of an evening spent at the 

77 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Procurator s house. Madame Nenarokonof is 
a great reader, speaks English perfectly, and is 
well acquainted with the best novelists of our 
country. She is quite young, good-looking, and 
full of energy. In the summer evenings she 
cycles with her husband outside the town where 
there is less dust and no traffic. We thought 
that if Tomsk could boast of many such ladies, 
its society must be charming indeed. It was 
with this agreeable companion, and an old nurse 
who had been with Madame Nenarokonof from 
her birth, that we went to see the house of the 
mysterious hermit. 

The peasants say that this old man was 
no other than the Emperor Alexander I. 
Alexander I. resigned the throne in favour of 
his brother the Grand Duke Constantine, who, 
in his turn, having contracted a morganatic 
marriage with a Polish lady, resigned in favour 
of a third brother Nicholas. Alexander I. died 
at Taganrog, a town on the shores of the Sea 
of Azof, where he accompanied his wife, the 
Empress Elizabeth, who was sent there by her 
doctors on account of her health. 

78 



THE MYSTERIOUS HERMIT 

The story runs that another man was buried 
in the Emperor's place, and that Alexander 
disappeared from that time and ended his life 
as a hermit in Siberia. 

However this may be it is quite true that 
a mysterious hermit did live for many years 
in Tomsk, and that he finally died there. 
During his latter days there was a good deal 
of curiosity as to who he might be. When the 
house was searched after his death a mother- 
of-pearl crucifix was found amongst his effects. 
On examination it was proved to open and 
reveal a carved letter A. There is also a legend 
that this crucifix contained correspondence 
proving the hermit's identity. It still hangs on 
the wall, and there is an enlarged photograph 
of the letter A beside it for visitors to look at. 
The diminutive house, with its tiny garden, was 
sold to the town quite recently for the sum of 
thirty thousand pounds. The hermit certainly 
did not give so much for it! The interior is 
fitted up as a church, and pious women decorate 
the walls with wreaths of bright-coloured paper 
flowers. The old lady in charge was terribly 

79 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

nervous lest I might set one of these flowers on 
fire with the candle I held in my hand. 

" If one flower catches fire," she said, " the 
whole place will burn to the ground in no time.'' 

The idea was too horrible ! I gave up the 
candle, but not before I had had a good look 
at a picture representing the old man in his 
last days, and at another of Alexander I. at the 
time of his coronation. The former represents 
the hermit as very old indeed. They say that 
Alexander habitually walked about with the 
thumb of one hand tucked into his girdle, and 
the other hand on his breast. The hermit 
seems to have had the same habit. Alexander, 
in the other picture, is represented as a fair 
young boy, with an innocent, girlish face, and 
waving, golden hair, on which rests the crown 
of all the Russias. The present Emperor 
visited the hermit's house when he passed 
through Siberia, and it has also been visited 
by other members of the Royal Family. 

The peasants say that whoever the hermit may 
have been, he came there to expiate his sins. 
Indeed, so firm was their belief that he had 

80 



THE MYSTERIOUS HERMIT 

succeeded in becoming a saint that as soon as 
he died they stole as many of his poor belong- 
ings as they could lay hands on. These they 
shared with their friends in the full belief that 
anything that had once belonged to a saint 
must inevitably bring prosperity with it. Be 
the story what it may, this hermit was cer- 
tainly some great personage who, for reasons 
of his own, wished to end his days in quiet 
and concealment. 



81 



Chapter VI 

KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

T} ETURNING to Taiga, we proceeded by the 
main line to Krasnoiarsk. The scenery- 
had quite changed, and our route lay through 
many miles of thick forest. We passed patches 
of ground where hundreds of trees had been 
destroyed by fire, and occasionally saw the 
lurid glare of what looked like huge bonfires 
through the trees. Smoke darkened the 
atmosphere just like a London fog. Such fires 
have been particularly frequent in 1900 owing 
to the fact that an insufficient amount of snow 
fell during the winter. The ground had become 
too dry. We also passed many spots where the 
hand of man had been at work. I photographed 
one tall tree that had been left to mourn its 
fellows. 

About every three-quarters of an hour we 

82 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

pulled up at a station where, availing them- 
selves of a six or ten minutes' halt, most of the 
passengers turned out for a whiff of fresh air 
and a brisk promenade on the platform. Many 
carried large tin kettles which they filled with 
boiling water from steaming samovars, always 
ready. Russians are tremendous tea drinkers. 
They did not when travelling pour boiling water 
on the tea as we do, but dropped the tea into 
the water, often after it had ceased to boil. 
Peasants from the country round used to bring 
the produce of their farms and carry on a brisk 
trade with passengers from the fourth class. 
They displayed their goods sometimes on the 
ground and sometimes on the counter roughly 
made of boards for the purpose. The articles 
sold were, for the most part, bottles of milk, 
bread, boiled chicken, pieces of bacon and 
strange-looking sausages. 

We found Krasnoiarsk a flourishing Russian 
colony. It is situated in a hollow, surrounded 
by picturesque hills of red sandstone, from which 
its name is derived. The word krasni means 
" red," and iar " a cliff." We saw from a long 

83 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

distance the red soil which covers the hill sides. 
Before we reached the station we caught sight 
of two large churches overtopping conspicu- 
ously the low buildings around them, and of 
a chapel perched high up on a hill close by, 
which, as we afterwards learned, was placed 
there in the year 1855 by the inspector of some 
gold mines. 

The town is nine hundred and thirteen feet 
above the sea level. It was originally a for- 
tress built to protect the Russians in Yeniseisk 
from the neighbouring Tatar tribes, and dates 
from 1429. We noticed many well dressed 
people in the streets as we drove to our hotel, 
and, altogether, the place struck us as being 
more Russian than Siberian. The Russia was a 
fairly comfortable hotel, the best we had seen 
since we left Moscow, and the cooking was 
good. Many of the townspeople had found 
this out, and dined there regularly. 

The Vice- Governor kindly took us to see the 
printing office where a local paper is printed 
three times a week. Eighty persons, six of 
whom are women, are employed there. They 

84 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

also undertake the printing and binding of 
books. We next visited the museum. Here, as 
at Tomsk, were some wonderful mammoth 
bones, found in the immediate neighbourhood. 
We also saw models of gold washing machines, 
which had originally been intended for the Paris 
exhibition, and lastly a collection of dresses once 
worn by priests of the Shamanist religion. The 
headdress was a bunch of cock's feathers ; the 
upper part of the robes was decorated with 
cowry shells ; while from the belt hung a 
number of imitation snakes with beads for 
eyes. 

" Those are Satans," said the old man in 
charge. " All those Satans have been conquered 
by the priest, and he wears them at his belt 
in triumph." 

Krasnoiarsk is proud of its public gardens, 
they are the best in Siberia, for in most towns 
it has been difficult to make the trees grow. 
Towards evening, as we strolled in the shade, 
we might well have fancied ourselves in some 
German town on the Rhine, for the beautiful 
Yenisei ran alongside of the gardens, and we 

85 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

could hear the river steamer whistling to warn 
intending passengers of its arrival. 

The next day a pleasant surprise awaited us. 
We were introduced to some charming English 
people who have lately taken up their residence 
in Krasnoiarsk. We remember with pleasure 
the kind hospitality shown us by Mr. and Mrs. 
Keighley, and their name will always be 
associated in our minds with that of the town 
in which they have made their home. 

The Vice-Governor had taken a box for us in 
the opera. We "must go," he said, "pour voir 
les moeurs du peuple " : so to the opera we went. 
It was really the circus, the theatre proper 
having been destroyed by fire, and there was 
an unpleasant odour of horses ; but we had to 
try and forget that. The opera was one that 
was then being performed in St. Petersburg and 
Moscow with great success. The music is by 
Tchaikof sky and the verse by Poushkin. 

In the first scene an old woman is represented 
as making strawberry jam under the trees in a 
country garden. The Russians, I am told, do 
all their jam making in the garden. 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

Then two young ladies come out, peep into 
the stew pan and sing a duet. One of these 
is the heroine. An unsophisticated country- 
girl, she falls in love with the first man she 
sees, writes a letter to tell him so, and they 
meet in the garden, the jam having disap- 
peared. The man, who is a sort of Don Juan, 
does not reciprocate her feelings. Politely, but 
firmly, he tells her that, " more than her friend 
he ne'er can be." Finally she marries an 
old general and becomes a woman of the 
world. In the last scene her first hero meets 
her once more at a ball. This time he falls 
desperately in love with her, but our heroine 
passionately explains to him that he has come 
too late. The ball scenes and the duel in a 
snow forest are said to be " absolument 
magnifique " as performed in St. Petersburg, 
but in Krasnoiarsk they bordered on the 
ridiculous. One of the duellists carefully dis- 
charged his pistol into the ceiling, and at the 
same moment his opponent fell dead at his feet — 
from surprise — probably ! Still it was all won- 
derful in a town in the heart of Siberia, in the 
same longitude as Calcutta. 

87 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

The following morning we found the streets 
impassable owing to volumes of dust blowing 
through them accompanied by showers of rain. 
The Vice-Governor, who was obliged to venture 
out on business, got so much dust in one of 
his eyes that he was half blind for the rest 
of the day. In the evening the air was calm 
and, the dust having been turned into mud 
by a heavy downpour, we took a walk in the 
town. One shop interested us particularly ; it 
was kept by Chinamen, and the chief article 
for sale was tea done up in pretty boxes, for 
which they asked a fabulous price considering 
how near we were to the land of tea. But 
besides tea there were lovely Chinese silks and 
embroideries and beautiful china. While we 
were admiring their wares, a Russian gentleman 
of our party began to tease these solemn-faced 
celestials. 

" If you are not sharp," he said, putting on 
a serious air, " the Japs will be getting ahead 
of you before long." 

" Never," replied one of the Chinamen with 
unmoved face as he displayed a delicate cup 

88 



3 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

and saucer to our admiring gaze. "The Japs are 
our subjects, and our subjects they will remain." 

Poor man ! How little he, or any of us, 
dreamed of the trouble that was coming upon 
him and his companions before many weeks 
had passed. I heard afterwards that when 
news of the disturbances in China penetrated 
as far as Krasnoiarsk these unfortunate men 
were compelled to close their shop, for a mob 
threatened to attack their house and made it 
dangerous for them to venture out. While 
waiting till the Governor could find them a 
safe escort back to China they were glad to 
sell off their goods at a dead loss ; valuable 
silks and costly china went for a mere song. 

On May 31 we embarked on the comfort- 
ably fitted up house boat that was to take 
Uo up the Yenisei to Minusinsk. There was 
a nice deck for passengers, and the dining 
saloon, where meals were ordered a la carte, 
had windows down both sides and at the 
further end, so that in bad weather we could 
sit there and enjoy the view all round us as 
v^e glided along. 

89 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

It was very cold as we went on board, and 
before long snow fell so fast that we were 
obliged to go below. We did not go down 
however before we had passed under the famous 
bridge. I tried to get a photograph of its 
entire length as it receded from our view, 
but my camera was too small. 

The bridge is about three-quarters of a mile 
long, and has six gigantic arches. Each arch, 
when building, was completed on the bank and 
then drawn into its place on the river by means 
of a special kind of crane invented for the 
purpose and used on this occasion for the first 
time. The piles are of grey granite brought 
from Birussa, a village about sixty versts 
distant. The whole was completed in the year 
1899. People travelling to Irkutsk before that 
time had to cross the river by sleigh in winter, 
and by boat in summer. 

The Yenisei is one of the largest rivers in 
Siberia. It rises in Mongolia and is formed 
by two streams, the Khakema and the Bikema. 
The name "Yenisei" is derived from a Tungus 
word meaning " great water." Breaking through 

90 







Prince Hilkof, Minister of Ways and Communications. 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

the mountain chain it forms rapids over which 
it flows at the rate of sixty versts an hour. 
Twelve versts above Minusinsk another river, 
the Abakan, joins it on the left, and yet an- 
other, twenty-five versts above that, on the 
right, the Touba. 1 The width varies consider- 
ably in the neighbourhood of Krasnoiarsk ; in 
some places it is more than a verst wide, and 
in others less than half a verst. After reaching 
the district of Yeniseisk the river receives its 
great tributary the Angara. At this point it 
is one verst and a half wide. After this it 
receives still other tributaries and becomes yet 
wider. Its entire length is three thousand one 
hundred versts. 2 It is so deep that steamers 
of a medium size can navigate it as far as 
Krasnoiarsk, Several ships have already made 
their way here, having come through the Kara 
sea from London. When the difficulty of 
getting through the ice has been overcome by 
means of ice breakers, as it certainly will be 

1 The rapidity of its flow makes it a most dangerous 
river for rafts, and it is not safe for bathing. 

2 A verst is a little less than an English mile. 

91 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

sooner or later, London and Krasnoiarsk, for 
purposes of trade, will seem much nearer to 
each other than they do at present. 

After passing under the bridge we were able 
to get a good view of certain mountains which 
had from the first attracted our attention on 
account of the weird formation of their rocky- 
summits. One of these is known by the name 
of Black Vulcan (Ohernaia Sopka). Soon after 
this we came to a low-roofed monastery, 
built close upon the water's edge, and cut off 
utterly from the rest of the world as it seemed. 

Travellers have compared the scenery of the 
Yenisei to that of some parts of Switzerland. 
For myself I think it has a beauty of its own, 
and find it hard to draw any comparison, especi- 
ally as the scenery changes so frequently, 
though it reminds one somewhat of the Italian 
Lakes. First we saw great rocks and boulders 
sloping down to the waters edge, and some- 
times overhanging it. Then we passed moun- 
tain streams which flowed between fir-clad hills 
with a winding course that was soon hidden 
from our view. There is good fishing in these 

92 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

streams, graylings abound ; but what is more 
important, the mud contains gold. 

Every inch of the land through which these 
streams flow has already been divided up into 
claims. There is no room for the adventurer 
here, he must go farther inland to wilder parts. 
If he goes far enough, he will find plenty of 
treasure for which no claim has been made. 
But an endless supply of patience and persever- 
ance is required if one would have success of 
any kind in Siberia, and above all in gold- 
mining. For the sportsman, there are bears 
in abundance, and sables with their costly furs 
are plentiful in the mountains. 

Our steamer stopped at one point where there 
was no sign of a landing-stage to land a party 
of miners with their wives and children. The 
hill side was steep, and one child, a little girl 
of about six years, after bravely trying to 
scramble up the bank, stood still in despair, 
till a man, probably her father, turned back 
and pulled her up. A woman followed carrying 
a baby on one arm and a basket on the other ; 
much to our surprise she managed to climb up 

93 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

without any assistance. A man came next 
carrying bundles of bedding and heavy pieces 
of perforated sheet iron to be used at the 
mine for which they were bound. In the 
distance — between the trees — there was a rough 
conveyance coming to meet them. It was a 
picture worthy of Klondyke. 

On and on we glided, curving in and out 
with every bend of the river and drawing 
nearer every hour to the borders of China. 
The second day the scenery became less rugged, 
there were still mountains all around us, but 
they stood further back from the river and 
left room for agriculture. Here vines were 
being cultivated and cornfields were gleaming 
yellow in the sunshine. Then the river grew 
wider and wider till we could hardly distinguish 
its further bank from the many islands covered 
with tall grass which floated between it and 
us. We now seemed to be no longer on a 
river, but continually passing from one lake 
into another, surrounded all the time by a 
glorious changing panorama of mountain 
scenery. The very distance between the moun- 

94 



KRASNOIARSK— THE YENISEI 

tains on either side of us gave an invigorating 
feeling of freedom to the whole scene. After 
several hours of continued winding there was 
another change ; once more we had steep bare 
mountains close to us on the left with their 
massive sides disappearing into and reflected 
in the clear water, a stretch of flat country 
covered with low shrubs on the right, and 
mountains closing in in the distance, about a 
mile away at first, then further and further off . 
The shadows grew longer with the setting 
sun, and then, as they gradually disappeared 
altogether in the soft evening light, we watched 
the crescent moon rise above a steep rock 
that grew more gloomy and black every minute. 
Again the mountains closed in, weird and gaunt 
now, and the water, but for a slight ripple 
that was always there, looked like a lake of 
glass. A shower of wood sparks had been 
falling all day from the funnel of the steamer. 
They had looked like large smuts in the sun- 
shine, but now they glowed in the twilight 
and fell into the water like a shower of 
rockets. 

95 



Chapter VII 
MINUSINSK 

This desert soil 
Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold. 

Paradise Lost. 

TT was our original intention to break our 
jouney to Minusinsk at a spot on the left 
bank of the Yenisei from which, by the aid of 
horses, we could proceed to Lake Tschuro. This 
lake is famed for the medicinal qualities of 
its water, and the village on its shore is fast 
becoming a popular health resort. 

" Many thousands of Siberians go there every 
year for their health," said a lady from Irkutsk. 
" It is well worth your while to see it." 

"Yes, you must see Lake Tschuro," said a 
high official to whom we applied for further 
information, " and I will give you an introduc- 
tion to the manager of a large gold mine a few 
miles further on than the lake." 

96 



MINUSINSK 

" If thousands of people land here every year, 
they leave remarkably few traces behind them," 
I remarked to my mother as we neared our 
proposed landing place. It was growing dusk, 
rain was falling, and we fervently wished that 
some of the other passengers were going in our 
direction. Before us a gigantic boulder loomed 
over the water and near it a tiny path wound 
its way up the bank, but no other trace of 
humanity was in sight. A rough man from 
the second class had got his bundles together 
and was perparing to land. " It would not be 
pleasant," we reflected, " to spend the night on 
that bank waiting for a droshky ! " The nearest 
village, we knew — for we had seen its church 
cupola as we passed — was quite two miles off. 
We decided to give up the pleasure of seeing 
Lake Tschuro, and the letter to the manager of 
the gold mine was never used. 

The landing-place at Minusinsk is not pre- 
possessing ; the ground is flat, and grass grows 
close up to the water's edge, but the place 
where we landed was bare with the tread of 
passengers. Close by a party of gipsy-like 

97 a 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

peasants were engaged in chopping up the 
trunks of several gigantic pine trees that 
had evidently been floated down the river 
from mountain forests. 

There is nothing that can be called an hotel 
in Minusinsk. We got our baggage into a large 
open basket on wheels and sitting on the top 
drove to the best inn in the town. Droshkies 
are to be Had, but must be ordered before- 
hand. The inn was roughly built of logs in 
true Siberian style, and adorned inside with 
fir trees which had been cut from their roots 
just above the ground and stuck into rough 
pots, or simply placed leaning against the wall. 
There was no washstand in our room, btit at our 
particular request a tin washbasin and a jug of 
water were brought by a woman and placed on the 
floor in one corner of the apartment. Our food 
was brought by the same woman, who seemed 
to do all the work of the house. The proprietor 
apparently had no bedroom for his own use ; he 
slept on a bench in the passage at the head of 
the stairs. 

We had brought a letter of introduction to 

98 



MINUSINSK 

the Curator of the Museum, and, as it was not 
yet dark, I started out to find him. By dint of 
showing the address on the envelope to several 
people who could read a little, I managed at 
length to find the house. It was an apothecary's 
modest shop. Entering by the shop door, which 
stood open, I confronted a man, who, with his 
coat off and his shirtsleeves tucked up, was 
arranging bottles, and handed him my letter. 
It never entered my head for a moment that he 
could be the curator, and when he suddenly tore 
open the letter and began to read it I was very 
much surprised. " No ! No ! " I cried, waving 
my hands and using the few words of Russian 
I could muster. " The letter is for the curator 
of the Museum, not for you. Please give it 
back to me and tell me where to find him." But 
he held the letter fast, and pointing to himself 
and laughing as though he thought it a very good 
joke, he finally made me understand that he 
was the curator of the Museum we had come so 
far to see. Not a word of anything but Russian 
could he speak, but by signs and gesticulations 
we managed to understand each other. Then I 

LcfC. 99 



A EIBBON OF IRON 

sat down in his little sitting-room while he 
sent for some one to interpret. Presently the 
assistant curator arrived. He was an exiled 
Pole, who had spent ten years of his life in a 
hard labour prison. He had had a university 
training in his youth, spoke French and German, 
and was a most interesting man to talk to. " I 
shall be very pleased to come with you to the 
Museum and interpret for M. Martianof," he 
said kindly, and I was only too glad to accept 
his offer. M. Martianof had an interesting 
face and most intelligent eyes. I was anxious 
to converse with him as well as to see the 
results of his patient labour. We arranged to 
meet at the Museum at an early hour the next 
morning. 

Nicolas Mikhailovitch Martianof is both 
botanist and apothecary by profession. He 
settled in Minusinsk in 1877, some say as an 
exile, and began at once to collect botanical 
specimens. He soon found it impossible how- 
ever to confine his attention to botany in a 
neighbourhood rich indeed in its flora, but 
richer still — with untold wealth — in those 

100 



MINUSINSK 

treasures which delight the heart of the 
mineralogist, the arcli£eologist, and last but 
not least the anthropologist. Bit by bit he 
gathered interesting collections around him, 
and so it was thus that the Museum came 
into existence. For twenty-five years it has 
been steadily growing, and today it is, of 
local museums, perhaps the most interesting 
in the world. 

The present town of Minusinsk is simply an 
overgrown Siberian village. Most of the houses 
are in a state of great dilapidation. The grey 
wood of which they are so roughly put together 
looks painfully rotten, and large families live 
in dwellings which, to an outsider, seem to have 
no roof at all ; how they keep warm in winter 
I cannot imagine. Our inn was in the chief 
street, which strangely resembled a farmyard. 
Cocks and hens strutted about in front of our 
windows. Yet there were stone houses and 
even shops to be found here and there, if one 
only knew where to look for them. So much 
for the Minusinsk of to day. The land, however, 
has a history. It is now an accepted fact that 

101 



A EIBBON OF IRON 

as far back as the year 2,000 B.C. the country- 
round was peopled by a wealthy and prosperous 
race of white men, who came originally from 
India, and are alluded to in the ancient annals of 
the Chinese. Later on, when these had either 
died out or been driven away by more powerful 
neighbours, other races flourished in turn on 
the same ground. Through the wonderful dis- 
coveries that are continually being made, the 
story of each distinctive race is coming to light, 
and a lost chapter is thus being added to the 
earth's written history. 

With the enthusiasm of a boy M. Martianof 
took us from case to case and from room to 
room. He would allow nothing to be looked at 
out of its turn ; there was a regular order in 
which everything had to be seen. The cases 
were greatly in want of repair, and, considering 
the value of their contents, it seemed incon- 
gruous w T hen the curator opened them by stick- 
ing the end of a lucif er match into their broken 
locks. Where a lid would not keep shut of 
itself a bit of old newspaper was jammed in. 
All the questions we cared to ask were patiently 

102 




Masks found near Minusinsk. 



MINUSINSK 

answered through our kind interpreter. There 
was a touching modesty about these two men ; 
self was utterly forgotten. Their whole soul 
was in the treasures they w^ere displaying. 

Beginning with mineralogy we saw specimens 
of precious metals, marbles, and stones brought 
from the neighbouring mountains, including the 
model of a nugget of gold weighing seventy-two 
pounds. Then our attention was directed to a 
collection of stones^ the surfaces of which had 
been polished by exposure to mountain blasts 
during a long succession of centuries ; and from 
these we passed to others on which water had 
had a similar effect. Next came a fine assort- 
ment of fossils. " The chalk of these fossils," 
said M. Martianof, pointing to one particular 
kind, " is used in South China for medicinal 
purposes." We now passed on to a collection of 
local birds, each with a nest full of eggs at its 
side. Here we recognized many of our feathered 
friends, including the domesticated pigeon, a 
bird common to nearly every part of Siberia. 
The pigeon is looked upon by Russians as an 
emblem of the Holy Spirit, and is therefore 

103 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

sacred. An Indian pheasant was also pointed 
out to us, and a grouse that had made its 
way from Mongolia. Interesting specimens of 
asbestos, or "mountain leather," as our inter- 
preter called it, next attracted our attention. 
Several rooms were devoted to the art of farm- 
ing, and agriculture in general. There were 
all kinds of fascinating fungi illustrating the 
diseases of trees. I remember one species which 
spreads itself out like a thin skin under the 
bark and slowly but surely sucks away the 
life of gigantic trees that might have flourished 
on for ages but for this fell enemy. Our eyes 
had rested on the summit of many a forest-clad 
mountain as we glided up the wide Yenisei, and 
now we turned with special interest to that 
section of the Museum which contained speci- 
mens of the wild animals that roam these still 
little explored regions. There were the bear, the 
fox, the sable, the ermine, the musk-deer, the 
lynx, and many another; but suffice it to say that 
the abundance of costly furs to be obtained from 
these wilds has already attracted the attention 
of traders. Some of the finest and rarest skins 

104 



MINUSINSK 

displayed in Regent Street have been brought 
from the mountains of Minusinsk. 

In another department we were shown plaster 
masks of great antiquity, which had been found 
in recently discovered graves. The masks had 
been taken after death. Several are in a state 
of perfect preservation. We did not see all of 
them, for archaeologists had already transferred 
a number of them to the museums of St. 
Petersburg. 

" It is true they have taken away some of my 
most valuable treasures," explained M. Martianof , 
but the collection is still complete in a way, for 
exact models of all the things taken have been 
left me. Here you see is a copy of a massive 
gold bracelet found in one of the tombs ; the real 
bracelet could not be left here without risk ; the 
same with the lump of gold, the cast of which 
you saw just now." 

We passed through rooms in which were dis- 
played countless arrowheads and other relics 
belonging to the ages of Stone and Ice ; but we 
did not linger here, for we knew it was the age of 
Bronze that had furnished the Museum with its 

105 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

richest trophies. The first of the rooms devoted 
to the Bronze period contained no less than 
4,000 bronze knives. Here there were numerous 
shelves on which were displayed handsomely 
worked vases, cups, helmets, horses' bits, 
mirrors, and suchlike. Speaking of mirrors, 
I bought an ancient mirror at Nikko in 
Japan two months later, which is not at all 
unlike those that have been dug up in the 
Minusinsk district. " The people who inhabited 
the country during the age of Bronze are sup- 
posed to have been of Finnish origin," said the 
Curator. " The presence of so many knives 
and helmets is an indication of their warlike 
temperament. They spread themselves over a 
wide area, and must have been a wealthy and a 
powerful race. I am convinced that the collec- 
tion you see here is nothing to the one we shall 
have in time if we persevere." 

The Curators enthusiasm was infectious. One 
longed to go out into the fields and, with one's 
own hands, dig up another delicate vase or 
another carved knife all green with age ; but, 
once carried away from the spot to which 

106 



MINUSINSK 

it belonged, a treasure of this sort would, 
to my mind, be bereft of half its interest. 
Do the treasures of the Parthenon displayed 
in the British Museum charm us like those we 
look up to from the heights of the Acropolis? 

Facing the chief staircase are glass cases 
containing two hundred skulls, every one of 
great value, dating back to prehistoric times. 
The Assistant Curator, M. Felix Cohn, is at 
present engaged in writing a book on this 
unique collection. Taking several of them 
from the shelves he explained to us wherein 
lay the distinguishing marks between these 
skulls and those belonging to a later date. 
Professor Virchow, of Vienna, has one or two 
like them in his collection, but very few if any 
are to be met with elsewhere. So far I have 
only mentioned the contents of the room on the 
ground floor. Having mounted the staircase we 
were confronted by startling apparitions — life- 
sized models of men and women from the various 
tribes of the district. Each figure was attired 
in brightly coloured native dress. 

Passing through to another section we found 

107 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

several rooms fitted up with bookshelves, and 
packed to the ceiling with books of every 
description and language, from Chinese works 
on art to volumes of our own Tennyson and 
Browning. Noticing our astonishment at the 
sight of these latter, the Curator explained that 
they had been sent him by the few English 
and American travellers who had visited 
Minusinsk. 

Professor F. R. Martin, a French archaeologist, 
visited Minusinsk in 1891. He had planned 
to stay one week, but the attractions of the 
Museum proved too strong, and he remained 
a much longer time, took away many photo- 
graphs of the bronzes, and has since published 
them in an album, a copy of which is now in 
the Museum. This gentleman could not speak 
highly enough of M. Martianof's collection. 

To Englishmen Minusinsk is scarcely known 
at all, or. only as a land rich in the gold mines of 
the future. M. Martianof told us that we were 
the first Englishwomen to whom he had shown 
his Museum, " but they will come in time," he 
added with a prophetic smile. 

108 



MINUSINSK 

Before leaving Minusinsk we made the 
acquaintance of a highly educated Polish exile, 
Count Richeski, to whom we had brought an 
introduction. He spoke English fluently. Much 
of his time is devoted to astronomy. He has a 
telescope of his own, and is a member of the 
" Societe Astronomique de France," to which 
he has contributed valuable observations on 
the fissures in the moon. He told us that on 
account of the purity of the atmosphere during 
the winter months he had had exceptional 
opportunities for studying the moons surface. 
Selenologists have been much interested in these 
observations. From Count Richeski we learned 
that in winter the thermometer often stands 
for several days in succession at 43° Reaumur, 
whilst 30° for six weeks together is not at all an 
uncommon occurrence. 



109 



Chapter VIII 

EMIGRANTS— LADY DOCTORS— 
KRASNOIARSK AGAIN 

T7* MIGRANTS meet you at every turn on 
-**-' the Siberian railway and on the river 
steamers. Indeed I might almost say that we 
had them with us wherever we went. Russians 
are emigrating at the rate of 200,000 a year, 
and Minusinsk is one of the districts to which 
they are being sent in shoals. In cold weather 
we used to see them lying in " heaps" at the 
railway stations, sleeping away the time and 
keeping one another warm. When there was 
nothing better to do we amused ourselves by 
trying to guess to whom that pair of legs 
belonged, or whether this head belonged to a 
man or a woman. Wrapped in their winter 
sheepskins, to lessen their baggage, they would 

110 



EMIGRANTS 

sleep sweetly while the powerful midsummer 
sun poured down upon their upturned faces. 

Yet these poor creatures are by no means 
uncared for. To begin with, when, of their 
own free will, they make up their minds to 
emigrate, the Government allows them to send 
delegates ahead to inspect the land that is to 
be their new home. When these men return 
a final decision is made. On the frontier, at 
Cheliabinsk, all their passports are carefully 
examined before they are allowed to proceed. 
Whenever they have to wait more than a cer- 
tain number of hours temporary shelters are 
provided. Those at Omsk are huts such as the 
Kirgiz live in. I was greatly mystified at 
first to see Russians going in and out of such 
dwellings. 

Returning from Minusinsk to Krasnoiarsk w T e 
had for our companion on the steamer a young 
medical lady who had just accompanied a batch 
of emigrants from Moscow to Minusinsk. She 
had with her a large wicker basket in which 
she carried medicines, bandages and other 
articles that might be wanted. Her duties con- 
Ill 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

sisted in going a round of inspection every day. 
On the steamer she had to see that the babies 
got proper food, taste their milk, and see that 
they were fed with white bread, the ordinary 
black bread being too coarse for very young 
children. On one of her rounds she had dis- 
covered that a man was developing typhus. It 
had then been her duty to have him landed at 
the nearest spot to a hospital, and give him 
over herself to the care of the nurses. She 
expected to spend the following summer 
months in attending various batches on their 
journeys from Krasnoiarsk to Minusinsk. 
Another lady doctor was stationed in Kras- 
noiarsk to attend to the welfare of emigrants 
halting there. 

The Government allows each man a certain 
amount of land, and this he is free to cultivate 
for ten years free of taxes. After that he 
becomes a regular citizen and pays his taxes 
like the rest. If he is very poor to start with, 
he may borrow thirty roubles, or some such sum, 
from the local official who has charge of Govern- 
ment money for that purpose* This he pays 

112 




c3 

U 



tf 






EMIGRANTS 

back by instalments as his worldly goods increase. 
There are some families who do not take 
kindly to the new life ; they pack up their 
bundles once more and return to Russia. I 
wondered at first how it was that so many 
seemed to be travelling the wrong way. " Those 
are people who have changed their minds," I 
was told ; " they are going home again." Now 
that they can travel by rail perhaps there are 
some who take the return trip for mere pleasure. 
Who knows ? The carriages in which they 
travel are suited specially to these long journeys. 
Wooden flaps are arranged to form upper 
berths, and these they cover with their own 
bedding. So comfortable do they make them- 
selves that they sleep the greater part of the 
way, and only wake for meals. Making my way 
through the central corridor of one of these 
carriages I felt as if I were walking between 
great cupboards, the shelves of which were 
packed with grimy humanity. 

As for the souls of the emigrants, their wel- 
fare is also looked after by the Government. A 
church-railway carriage is hooked on to the end 

113 n 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

of the train when required, and a long-haired 
priest officiates. The church being very small 
the air soon becomes vitiated from the presence 
of such dirty people ; none but an emigrant 
could stand it. 

Great care is taken that those who have 
been neighbours in the old country shall con- 
tinue to be neighbours in the new, and fresh 
arrivals are not allowed to interfere with those 
who were there before them. 

At Omsk we made the acquaintance of a 
gentleman who is styled " Head of the Peasants." 
His business is to arrange with foreign markets 
for the purchase of their salt butter, corn and 
other agricultural produce. A large amount of 
the butter consumed by our London poor is 
made by Siberian peasants. 

We found it a difficult matter to get away 
from Minusinsk, not because of the attractions 
of the place, but on account of the irregularity 
of the steamers. Hearing that one was due at 
five in the afternoon, and that after only an 
hour's delay it would start immediately for 
Krasnoyarsk, we drove down to the bank — there 

114 



EMIGRANTS 

is nothing that can be called a wharf except a 
barge moored to the side — and, having dismissed 
our droshky, sat on some rough planks to 
await our steamer. It never came. After 
several hours had passed and the evening was 
getting dark and chilly, a peasant woman came 
and persuaded us to go back to the inn for the 
night. She managed to convey her meaning by 
shutting her eyes and leaning her head on her 
hand. The people who had seen us leave the 
inn smiled knowingly as they saw us return. 
Their faces seemed to say, "I told you so." 
This was very aggravating, but worse was still 
to come. The innkeeper came out to meet us 
just as calmly as if we had been new comers. 
He showed us, by pointing to the clock, that 
the steajner would start at five o'clock the next 
morning. We did not pay our droshky man, 
lest he should forget to call for us in good time. 
Lying down in our clothes, we spent a restless 
night and were thankful to hear the whistle of 
a steamer soon after daybreak. " There she is," 
I cried, and in another minute the droshky man 
was thumping at our door. I went out into 

115 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

the passage. The innkeeper lay there snoring, 
and did not seem inclined to wake. I roused 
him, however, and paid our bill. Then once 
more he and his wife bade us adieu. This time 
I said dosvi danie x very politely, and gave the 
woman a larger tip, for I had a presentiment 
that we should meet again. 

There lay the steamer ; but how much smaller 
she looked than the one by which we had come ! 
We began to have misgivings ; but when we 
said " Krasnoiarsk ?" in a questioning tone, to 
the men on the bank, they smiled and nodded. 
Thinking all was right, we told the droshky man 
to take our things on board. All at once the 
people shook their heads and tried to stop us. 
" Krasnoiarsk ? " we said again, and again they 
nodded, but they would not let us go on board. 
As the steamer now showed signs of starting I 
grew desperate, and seizing my umbrella drew 
a line on the sand, and making a mark for 
Minusinsk and another for Krasnoiarsk, showed 
them where we wanted to go. Then an old 
peasant took the umbrella from my hand and 
1 Russian for au revoir. 

no 



EMIGRANTS 

added a branch line to my sand picture. At 
the end of the branch line he put a mark, 
pronouncing at the same time the name of a 
place I had never heard of. Then he turned 
and pointed to the steamer. At last we under- 
stood. The steamer s name was Krasnoiarsk, 
but she was bound for quite a different place, a 
a village on the Abakan ! This time we felt 
painfully self-conscious as we drove back to 
the inn. 

The following evening, at five o'clock, our 
steamer came at last. We went on board at 
once, but she did not start till five the following 
morning, thirty-six hours after the appointed 
time. 

The name of this steamer was Scotia. She 
was originally a sea-going pleasure yacht, built 
in Scotland, but we found her a dirty, second- 
rate passenger boat. Still she was a tough 
little ship, for she was one of the two that 
braved the Kara sea and made their way from 
England to Krasnoiarsk. It rained a good deal 
going back, but we borrowed mackintoshes, and 
sat on deck most of the time. At one of the 

117 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

stopping places a pig ran swiftly down the 
bank and began swimming towards us ; every- 
one laughed to see its business-like air. Sud- 
denly, when close to the steamer, after taking 
a good look at us all, it turned round and swam 
back to the bank as fast as it had come. 

"Ah!," said a peasant who was leaning over 
the side, " he only travels first class ! " (There 
were no first cabins on the Scotia, all were 
marked " second.") 

What a nice change it was to get back to 
Krasnoiarsk and have eatable food once more ! 
At Minusinsk there had been so little one could 
eat. The eggs were peculiar, bread, milk, and 
cream were sour, while a strange taste in the 
water spoiled the flavour of the tea we had 
brought from England. 

At Krasnoiarsk we wrote our letters, and I 
took them to the post-office to be registered. 
The man insisted that the addresses must be in 
Russian, and as the only name I had learned 
to write in Russian characters was my own, 
I was obliged to register them to myself. The 
plan succeeded, and I can recommend it to 

118 



EMIGRANTS 

others who may find themselves in a similar 
difficulty. If you do not register in Siberia, 
there is every chance that the stamps will 
be taken off and the letter destroyed long 
before it reaches the border. You cannot 
register after 2 p.m., in which case it is advis- 
able to use a black-edged envelope. Super- 
stition will then prevent its being tampered 
with. 

" Do you see that white house standing in 
its own grounds ? " said a friend just before we 
started for Irkutsk. 

"Yes," I replied, looking in the direction 
indicated. 

" That house contains the best library of 
which Siberia can boast," was the reply. " It 
is the private collection of Genade Basilivitch," 
continued our friend. "It contains a copy of 
every book that has been written on the 
country." We were sorry not to have an 
opportunity of seeing such a collection of books'; 
but, after all, we should not have gained much 
by looking at their covers. 

It was at Krasnoiarsk that we were enter - 

119 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

tained with stories of an adventurous American 
who undertook, about three years ago, to cross 
Siberia on foot. He accomplished the feat in 
two years, and is now in the States, where he 
publishes occasional articles on his journey. In 
one house on the route, where he was hospitably 
received, he obtained some large screws, and, 
screwing them into the soles of his boots, 
proceeded to try them on his hostess' parquet 
floor, much to that lady's consternation. Our 
pedestrian carried all his luggage himself. It 
included a frock coat. He wore a hat which 
was telescopic, and could be used as an um- 
brella if required. A gentleman who saw him 
when he had accomplished about half his jour- 
ney told me that his hair had become so bleached 
and so coarse that it was more like sheep's wool 
than human hair. 



120 



Chapter IX 

SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK. 
IRKUTSK 

A FEW minutes after leaving Krasnoiarsk 
■ ^ station our train crossed the wonderful 
Yenisei bridge. We found it much narrower 
than it had appeared as we glided beneath it 
in the steamer. There is only one line of rails, 
and barely room for a foot-passenger to stand 
on either side as the train passes over. We 
were surprised to find several men and some 
women and children calmly gazing up at us, 
squeezing themselves into as little space as 
possible against the sides. Such a thing would 
hardly be feasible if the train moved at a 
greater speed. 

After we had crossed over we took a sharp 
turn to the left and kept close to the river 
for a short distance. We now had a fine view 

121 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

of the town across the water. Very soon it 
had disappeared, and in its place was lovely- 
scenery, not at all unlike that of some of the 
Harz mountains. Grass-clad hills rose one 
after another before our eyes. They were like 
the peaks that wind sometimes forms on sand 
hills, only higher. Their fresh green slopes 
seemed to melt before our eyes and spread 
themselves into verdant meadows. These 
meadows soon appeared to reflect the blue sky 
above them, for they were carpeted with for- 
get-me-nots. Then we passed a clear stream 
such as the forget-me-nots had led us to expect, 
and a horse that was drinking the w~ater as 
it gurgled over the stones, fled at a gallop as 
the train approached. How little our friends 
at home could dream that we were enjoying 
this beautiful and home-like scene so far away 
in the heart of Siberia ! Soon the forget-me- 
nots were out of sight and the meadows shone 
a fiery orange red, for such was the effect of 
the ranunculus in the afternoon sunlight. 

We leaned our heads out of the carriage 
windows that we might listen to the larks 

122 



SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK 

singing in the clouds above us and watch the 
setting sun as it flashed golden beams through 
the dark fir-trees. The ground now became 
more cultivated ; it was like a piece of coloured 
patchwork, bright yellow where it was covered 
with the stubble of last years corn, green 
where fresh grass was growing, and black as 
ink where the peasants had recently turned 
up the rich dark earth. That earth, as agri- 
culturists would tell you, is of more value to 
Siberia than all her mines of gold. 

Presently we passed hills entirely covered 
with trees ; the white- stemmed birch mingled 
its pale-green foliage with that of the gloomy 
larch, whose ruddy bark shone like copper in 
the evening sun. A group of men at work 
on the line stood still to watch us pass. Their 
cotton blouses represented all the colours of 
the rainbow ; or, if any one tint was absent, 
we certainly saw it too, a little later, when 
we passed a village all in grey, and espied — the 
only colour in the picture — a line of gay blouses 
hanging out to dry. The effect of these bright 
colours was unique. 

123 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Now came hills and vales covered with park- 
like sward, soft as the grass of an English 
lawn. An old English mansion would not have 
seemed out of place here, in spite of the fact 
that no oak, elm, or copper beech was visible. 
Here and there we saw a slender fence of 
white birch gleaming like silver filigree between 
the trees, or a skeleton birch stripped of its 
leaves and lying like a branch of white coral 
on the rich sward. And all the time our engine 
panted slowly on like some huge animal labour- 
ing for its breath. When nearing a station 
it would give, in place of our ordinary train 
whistle, the scream of a steamer approaching 
land. Night closed in at last, and when we 
looked out the next morning we found that 
the scenery had changed again. The hills had 
quite disappeared, and forests of pine surrounded 
us on all sides. 

The heat had become intense. We lay still 
with closed eyes for several hours, too ex- 
hausted to stir. Towards the close of the day 
it grew deliciously cool, and a refreshing breeze 
blew into our carriage windows with such 

124 



SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK 

violence that it knocked over a bottle of milk 
and carried off a sheet of paper on which I 
was making notes. 

We now came to a scene of desolation, a 
forest of dead and leafless trees standing gaunt 
and stiff like sentinels burnt to death at the 
post of duty. This pitiful sight continued for 
several miles. The cruel fire that had been 
the cause of all this destruction must have 
done the mischief some time back, for here 
and there an undergrowth had begun to spring 
up round the cracked and charred poles ; they 
were trees no longer ; their very branches were 
gone. 

Further on we saw the fire at its fiendish 
work. Blue smoke curled through the forest 
to our right, and a strong smell of burning 
permeated the air. Blackened trunks lay 
smouldering on the ground, and now and again 
the stump of what must have been once a 
king of the forest was blazing and crackling 
like a log fire. 

It was early on Whit-Sunday morning, by 
Russian reckoning, when the train steamed into 

125 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Irkutsk — or rather smoked in — for its funnel 
sent forth volumes of black smoke. 

The hotel in which we stayed was called the 
M6tropole. We had been advised to go there 
rather than to any other " because it is the 
cleanest." We noticed throughout our tour 
that people comparing the respective merits of 
Siberian hotels invariably designated the dif- 
ferent establishments as " clean," " cleaner," 
or " cleanest," unless indeed they were obliged 
to use the words " dirty," " dirtier," " dirtiest." 

There were some fair-sized rooms in the 
MtftropoU, and sheets and pillows could be 
had for the beds by paying extra for them, 
but the service had better be passed by in 
silence. There was a " commissioner " attached 
to the hotel who understood German ; but he 
was invariably out, or asleep in bed when we 
wanted him to interpret. When surrounded 
by six gaping waiters I asked for a spoon they 
brought me a glass of vodka ! 

Our bedroom had windows on two sides and 
a sort of tiirret in one corner with windows 
all round it like a lantern. It opened with 
folding doors into a large sitting-room with a 

126 



SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK 

balcony. For the two rooms we were asked 
six roubles 1 a day. Food we paid for separately, 
and ordered a la carte. 

Irkutsk was enjoying a lovely April day 
when we saw its streets for the first time. 
Taking a stroll through the town we gazed 
with delight on the Siberian crab trees, whose 
branches were covered with snowy blossom. 
These trees seemed to be in every garden and 
at every street corner. 

As it was Whit-Sunday, and church time, 
men and women, dressed in their best, were 
hurrying to church with branches of apple- 
blossom in their hands. Bright green grass, 
wet with the night's rain, flourished in the 
less trodden parts of the unpaved streets. We 
looked at the windows of the houses as we 
went along and saw that the spaces between 
the double panes of glass were still packed 
with cotton wool. On top of the cotton wool 
blossoms of everlasting flowers had been laid 
as decoration. They had lain there the whole 
long winter, and that winter was hardly over 
yet, while with us it was the 10th of June. 
1 A rouble is equal to 2s. Id. 
127 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Irkutsk, as we find it today, is one of the 
most Russianized towns of Siberia, and therefore 
one of the least interesting to the superficial 
traveller. He who looks more deeply sees that 
the town is passing through a crucial point in 
its existence and that it must be considered 
with regard both to what it was a short time 
ago and what it will be in the near future. 
Today, with all its handsome stone churches, 
its public buildings, its schools and its shops, 
it has not a single paved street ; it has neither 
water works nor electric light. Yet these 
blessings of civilization are not far off. A 
scheme for their introduction, involving an out- 
lay of some three and a half million roubles, 
has already been set on foot. 

The Great Siberian Railway has done wonders 
for Irkutsk. Its inhabitants no longer feel 
themselves isolated from the rest of the world. 
A pleasant journey of nine days now brings 
them to Moscow without the ordinary fatigue 
of travelling. They have simply to get in and 
out of their moving hotel. 

The chief gold melting establishment in 

128 



SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK 

Siberia is here. Gold is received straight from 
the mines, melted and weighed. According to 
its weight cash is paid down in roubles to 
those who have brought it. The surrounding 
neighbourhood is rich in silver and copper ore, 
which only await enterprise and capital. Coal 
mines are already being worked, and their 
owners have lately made a contract with the 
Government to supply so many tons of coal 
regularly for the railway. At present a great 
deal of wood is used. 

More than two hundred thousand roubles 
were spent in building the theatre. It is a 
handsome edifice entirely of stone. Some years 
ago, when the churches were almost the only 
stone buildings in existence, a terrible fire broke 
out and destroyed half the town. Such a 
disaster could not now occur in Irkutsk, as 
the chief streets contain only a small proportion 
of wooden houses, and a law has been passed 
that no more are to be built there. 

A similar disaster did however occur in 
Tomsk only a few days after we had left it. 
This we learned from the Irkutsk journal 

129 i 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

which a friend translated to us. The fire broke 
out at eleven o'clock in the morning and the 
wind carried sparks from one house to another 
till several streets were in flames. While all 
the firemen were using their efforts to stop 
the flames from spreading, and to save the 
women and children, signals were made to them 
that another part of the town was also burn- 
ing ; but they had their work cut out for them 
where they were, and concluded that the signals 
referred to the quarter in which they were 
already engaged, so they went on with their 
heroic task, holding back frantic mothers as 
they tried to dash into the flames to save their 
children, and stopping those who, crazy with 
fear, were spreading the fire in attempts to 
rescue their burning furniture. Thus whole 
streets were left to their fate. When at last 
the fire was extinguished it was found that 
six entire streets had been destroyed. It is 
estimated that about seven hundred thousand 
roubles worth of property was reduced to 
cinders in a few hours. 

Irkutsk spreads over a great deal of ground. 

130 



SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK 

The station is about two miles from the centre 
of the town, and you have to pass over the 
Angara. As you cross the bridge a toll of 
eight kopeks is demanded for each carriage. 

The beautiful river Angara will, in times to 
come, be an additional source of wealth. At 
present nothing is being done to make it more 
navigable, but thousands of roubles have been 
spent in fruitless attempts to clear away the 
stones in its bed which obstruct the passage 
of large vessels. Tea merchants have been 
especially interested in these efforts, knowing 
well that if they could only bring their tea 
straight from China by means of the river, they 
would be able to make their millions. Besides 
being more rapid in its flow than any other 
river in Siberia, the Angara has the purest 
water. It can safely be drunk without boiling, 
and is so clear that, looking down into it from 
the bridge, you can see the bottom as distinctly 
as if there were no water there. 

As soon as the railway was brought to 
Irkutsk, half the inhabitants were thrown out 
of work, for they had hitherto gained their 

131 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

livelihood by the transport of travellers. They 
are now slowly beginning to turn their energies 
in the direction of agriculture, but the crisis 
can hardly be said to be over. 

A few capitalists have so far had everything 
their own way, for in a new country, poor men, 
however energetic they may be, can dp nothing 
without capital. " Millionaires," as they are 
called, of forty thousand roubles or thereabout, 
live in the utmost simplicity far out in the 
country. They have travelled and seen some- 
thing of the world, and now an occasional visit 
to Irkutsk is all the change they require. Any- 
one who had not heard of their comparative 
wealth would take them for well-to-do farmers. 

Prices are very high ; ground rent is simply 
enormous considering it is Siberia. The oats 
used to feed the horses are very dear ; conse- 
quently a drive in a droshky costs double the 
amount one is accustomed to pay in St. Peters- 
burg. Hotels, too, are expensive considering 
the lack of comfort. 

The schools are large and well managed ; their 
teachers are from Russia. French and German 

132 



SCENERY AFTER KRASNOIARSK 

are taught, but English has not yet penetrated 
so far. Those who have learned it elsewhere 
have forgotten the little they knew for want 
of opportunity to practise it. Many Siberians 
bring their children to town for the winter and 
return to their country houses when the summer 
holidays begin. 

Here, as elsewhere, a strict line is drawn 
between those who are and those who are not 
"in society," but there is, notwithstanding, a 
kindly feeling between the classes, and a Ge- 
miithlichkeit that other spots on this earth might 
do well to imitate. Taking all in all, Irkutsk 
has its favourable points ; and there is certainly 
" a good time coming." 



133 



Chapter X 
A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

II n'y a ni mauvaises herbes ni mauvais hommes ; il 

n'y a que de mauvais cultivateurs. 

Victor Hugo. 

/^VN Friday morning we started on our first 
^-^ journey by tarantass. The Governor of 
Irkutsk had kindly provided us with a letter 
to the Director of the hard labour prisons at 
Alexandrovsk, and we were impatient to make 
use of it. 

Alexandrovsk is situated about fifty miles 
north-west of Irkutsk and a little more than 
a hundred miles from the Chinese frontier. 
As the road is not good and the hills are steep 
one has to allow at least seven hours for the 
journey and change horses three times on the 
way. Fresh horses often have to be fetched 
from the fields, and there are only dilapidated 
and dirty post houses to rest in, which swarm 

134 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

in hot weather with the most unpleasant of 
insects. Nothing but hot water can be got at 
these places, not even a glass of milk or an egg, 
though cows and poultry roam at large in the 
village streets. The men who come out to 
change your horses look like veritable ruffians ; 
their clothes are ragged and dirty, while their 
hair hangs over their eyes like matted tow ; yet 
for all their wild appearance they are duly ap- 
pointed servants of the State, and may be trusted 
even by ladies travelling alone as we were. 

" I cannot promise you an elegant convey- 
ance," said a Russian officer who kindly acted 
as our interpreter when we were ordering a 
vehicle, and indeed it was simply a mudbe- 
spattered cart with a wooden hood at one end, 
like a huge barrel. It had no springs and no 
seats, except that of the driver ; the bottom was 
covered with straw, and upon this we placed 
large pillows taken from our beds at the hotel. 

The jolting of a tarantass is something that 
must be experienced in order to be understood ; 
the first hour or so of it brings you to the 
conclusion that you will be a mass of bruises 

135 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

by night time. But there is an art in tarantass 
travelling as there is in everything else. Officers 
who have constantly to make long journeys in 
them say that you should sit with your heels 
drawn up under you, and your chin resting on 
your knees. This brings you into the position 
in which the spine is least affected by the motion. 

It was quite dark before we reached Alexan- 
drovsk, but there was a cheerful look about the 
chief street as we drove through it, for bright 
lights shone from many a window, and gave one 
the impression that there was comfort within. 

At last we stopped at the door of the visitors' 
house, as it is called. There is no hotel in the 
place, for none go to Alexandrovsk except to 
visit the prison like ourselves, or to transact 
business with its Director. A man came out 
and asked if we had brought a letter of intro- 
duction ; then, seeing one in my hand, he at once 
offered to help us out of the tarantass. We were 
shown into a sparely furnished, but beautifully 
clean, guestchamber, and our wraps, which were 
full of straw, were carried away to be shaken. 

Not wishing to lose any time, we sent the 

136 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

letter at once to the gentleman to whom it 
was addressed. Hardly ten minutes had elapsed 
when we were told that the Director was wait- 
ing to speak to us in the next room. 

As we entered two gentlemen came forward 
to welcome us with a kindly greeting that was 
quite refreshing after our long and solitary 
drive. We knew at once which was the 
Director ; he was an elderly man of marked 
personality. His grey hair was long like that 
of a musician. He had the face of a Sarasate, 
but his dress was military, and a row of medals 
adorned his breast. When he spoke he had a 
queer little way of putting his head close to 
yours and peering into your face with his twink- 
ling eyes, as though he wished to read your 
thoughts rather than listen to your words. At 
first I attributed this to a desire to surmount 
the difficulty of having no common language 
in which we could converse, but I noticed later 
on that he behaved in the same way with every 
one he spoke to, even the criminals in the 
prison. His companion had come to see if he 
could help us understand one another, but we 

137 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

found that though he had learned German at 
school he could neither understand nor speak it. 

The Director brought out a book containing 
the names of all the people who had visited the 
prison for the last ten or twelve years ; there 
was not a woman's name among them, so it 
was no wonder if our visit caused some interest. 
I do not think there were thirty names in all, 
and only four or five were English. 

While we were talking supper was brought 
in, and we were pressed to eat. Our host kept 
up an animated conversation all the time ; I 
cannot call it a fluent one, for every word had 
to be repeated many times, and illustrated by 
action before we could get to an understanding. 

When the man who was waiting on us had 
left the room the Director told us that he and 
all the other servants were convicts. 

" They will take every care of you during 
your stay here," he continued, " and do all in 
their power to make you comfortable. You 
are perfectly safe in their hands." 

He then went on to explain that the villagers 
of Alexandrovsk were all people who had, for 

138 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

some crime or other, been condemned to penal 
servitude. After passing the allotted number 
of years in close confinement they had been 
allowed to settle down in homes of their own 
with their wives and children, still under the eyes 
of the Director though outside the prison walls. 

Just then a man who had been sent for by 
the Director entered the room. 

" Here is one of them," he added ; "he is a 
German, and can interpret for us." Then turn- 
ing to the man he bade him tell us about 
himself and his work. He was quite young, and 
would have been good-looking but for his very 
prominent ears ; his eyes were bright, almost 
unnaturally so, and there was something 
pathetic in the expression of his face. It was 
the face of one whose spirit had been broken, 
but not crushed. 

" I am a criminal," he said simply, " just like 
those you will see in the prison tomorrow. 
My conduct pleased the Director, so he let 
me out before my time. I may not leave 
Alexandrovsk, but the restraint placed upon 
me is now only a moral one. There are many 

139 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

like myself ; the Director trusts us implicitly. 
We all have our own handicraft ; I am an 
upholsterer. For a certain number of hours 
each day we work for the Government, the rest 
of our time is our own to earn what we can. 
The regulation of our compulsory work is in 
the hands of the Director ; if he is pleased with 
us, he gives us less to do ; but if he is dissatisfied, 
he gives us more. I have my wife and children 
with me, and in a few weeks' time I am to 
receive my papers from Russia. I shall then be 
a free man, but I shall not go back to Russia. 
I have made my home here now." 

" The room we are now in," said the Director, 
when the convict had finished his story, " is 
used as a concert hall for the prisoners, and 
now and then we have theatricals. You see 
there is a raised platform at one end." 

Then he took us into another room and 
showed us a plan of part of the Siberian railway. 
" Our prisoners laid all the rails from Malta to 
Telma," he said proudly, "a distance of thirty- 
six versts. The prisoners are from Russia and 
Poland," he continued. "Including the four 

140 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

hundred who live in the village we can take a 
hundred thousand. At present there are six 
hundred and fifty in the prison itself, besides 
those employed outside." 

We asked why this distant spot had been 
chosen for the settlement. 

" For reasons of economy," was the Director's 
reply. "It is much easier to provide food out 
here than near a town ; land is much cheaper, 
and farm produce more easily obtained." 

We next asked if there were any political 
offenders at Alexandrovsk. 

" Yes, we have some from the nobility," was 
the reply, "but you will not be able to distin- 
guish them from the rest, for all are treated 
exactly alike." 

We slept splendidly after our long drive, in 
spite of the fact that we were surrounded by 
criminals, and felt ready for anything when the 
Director came at eight o'clock the next morn- 
ing to escort us through the prison. He had 
brought with him the prison doctor, a quiet 
elderly man who spoke a little French, and the 
young man who had learned German. The 
last-mentioned carried a dictionary this time. 

141 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

On the way we passed a pretty church built 
of red brick. 

"That church was built by prisoners," said 
the Director. " You will not find another in 
Siberia built of red brick." 

At this moment a respectably dressed man 
came up with a paper roll in his hand. 

" You said you would like to buy some photo- 
graphs of Alexandrovsk," said the German 
convict, who was again acting as interpreter. 
" This man, a prisoner like myself, is a photo- 
grapher and an artist by profession. He has 
brought you some photographs." 

On entering the church the Director drew 
our attention to some mural paintings ; one of 
them, representing Christ rising from the tomb, 
was particularly well executed. They were all 
the work of the photographer to whom we had 
just been speaking. The prison buildings and 
a spacious courtyard were enclosed by a high 
bricki wall. As we entered the German left us. 
A prisoner himself, it would not have done for 
him to accompany us further. 

We went into the prison, and visited first the 

142 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

store rooms, in which new clothes for the 
inmates were arranged in piles. These gar- 
ments were the work lo£ the prisoners, who 
supplied wearing apparel not only for the 
whole of Alexandrovsk, but also for the inmates 
of all the prisons in the Irkutsk Government. 
Prison-made boots and shoes were also shown 
us ; even the leather for them had been pre- 
pared on the premises. 

The rooms opened into wide well lighted 
corridors, the floors of which were sprinkled 
with sand. The first was set apart for bread 
cutting. Here we found men cutting up great 
loaves into regulation shares. Each worker 
was allowed three pounds, each non-worker 
two and a half. 

Next we saw the prison shop where prisoners 
who had any money of their own were allowed 
to purchase such things as cigars, sausages, 
milk, potatoes, white bread and sugar. I also 
saw small looking-glasses for sale. 

Then we went to look at the prisoners' beds. 
Behind each was a recess in the wall which 
served as a cupboard in which the prisoner 

143 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

could keep his things ; the bed was made to 
shut back against the recess in the daytime, 
and so form the door of the cupboard. 

"All the men in this room are Jews," said 
the Director, opening another door. " They are 
not kept together, but we have allowed them 
to meet today, because this is one of their 
religious festivals. One of them is an English- 
man. He shall come and speak to you." 

The man came at once when called, and the 
Director waited patiently while we spoke with 
him in English. 

" What part of England do you come from ? " 
we asked. 

"I am from Glasgow," he answered, "but I 
lived in Whitechapel for some years. Do you 
know Whitechapel ? " 

" Yes," we replied, and then we asked him if 
he had any friends to whom he would like to 
send a message. 

" No, I don't want to send any messages," he 
replied in rather a sullen tone. 

" How long have you been here ? " we asked. 

" Ten years," he answered. " I was a soldier 

144 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

in Riga, so I can't return to England ever 
unless I run away." 

" Are you comfortable here ? " we asked. 

"Yes, fairly," he said, shrugging his shoulders. 

" So we are the first Englishwomen you have 
seen for ten years ? " 

" Yes," he replied, " you are the first. Please 
give me a little money. You know we have a 
shop here at which we can buy things." 

We gave him a trifle, and went away much 
impressed. We had not expected that our first 
encounter with a fellow countryman would take 
place under such circumstances as these. 

The Director now took us to see the school. 

" How do you punish a man if he tries to 
escape?" I asked on the way. 

11 He is sent to the Island of Sakhalin," 1 replied 
the Director. I asked no more, for I knew that 
there was hardly a punishment more severe 
than this. Sakhalin is the furthest point in the 
Czar's dominions to which a subject can be 
banished. Its climate is remarkable for its 

1 Not to be confused with the town of this name in 
Ma nchuria. 

145 k 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

severity, it is ice-bound during the greater part 
of the year, and there are seldom as many as 
fifty days in the whole year that are entirely 
free from rain or mist. Until the end of the 
eighteenth century it belonged to China, and it 
was only in 1875 that the whole island came 
under Russian sway. Russia is now colonizing 
it slowly and steadily with transported crimi- 
nals of the worst character. They are em- 
ployed in working the coal mines, and in 
general agriculture under Government super- 
vision. Even here life is not without hope, 
for a man who has satisfied the authorities by 
his good conduct for a certain number of years 
is rewarded with semi-freedom and a little plot 
of land which he may call his own. Should he 
wish to marry, there are plenty of female 
criminals amongst whom he can make his 
choice, for female convicts from Russia are sent 
there by steamer from Odessa. 

School was being carried on in a cheerful 
room with two long tables, and benches for the 
pupils. At one end near the window was a 
blackboard on a stand. A teacher stood in 
front of it explaining some simple arithmetical 

146 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

problem to a group of rough men from the 
lowest peasant class. In another part of the 
room sat an old man with a white beard. He 
was poring over a book with large print, but 
looked up as we entered. 

" That old man is learning to read," said the 
Director ; " he is sixty-three." 

We asked if they had a Bible, and one of 
the pupils was ordered to fetch one. He 
opened a cupboard in the wall and brought out 
a large-printed Russian Bible. Round the walls, 
besides maps, were a series of prints illus- 
trating the horrible fate of drunkards, from a 
little boy drinking beer, to a man suspended 
from the gallows. There were also a number 
of picture books on the table. 

"We use this as a reading room as well as a 
schoolroom," explained the Director. " Some of 
the men you see here have simply come to have 
an hours reading ; and that raised desk is used 
by the teachers when they lecture to a roomful." 

As we were passing out our eyes fell upon an 
uncouth countryman, who, with a pen in his 
great clumsy hand, was bending over a child's 
copybook. In his younger days, spent in civil- 

147 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

ized Europe, he might have ignored the art of 
writing, but out here — far away in Siberia — 
he was doing his best to learn. 

"You must see our bathrooms," said the 
Director, opening another door. " Every man 
has a bath and clean linen twice a week." 

We went in, and saw a number of large zinc 
baths with taps for water at the side. Then 
we proceeded to the courtyard, and crossing 
it observed that the prison walls were of red 
brick, while the roofing was painted green. 
This bright colouring corresponded well with 
the cheerfulness of the interior. 

The bakehouse opened into the courtyard. 
Here dough had been put into large tubs to 
rise. The ovens were flat like those of Eastern 
countries. We tried some bread that had just 
been baked and found it very good. 

Next came the kitchen where soup was being 
prepared in seven immense boilers ; on the 
table was a framed " menu " tablet showing the 
fare provided for the day's dinner. The 
Director insisted on our tasting the soup, and 
took some himself. It was made with meat 

148 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

and vegetables and was most palatable. We 
also tasted a drink called " Kwas," which was 
also being prepared in large quantities. It is 
made from bread and is a favourite drink with 
Russian peasants. 

We were now taken to see the prisoners at 
their work ; carpenters, cabinet makers, book- 
binders, tailors, upholsterers, shoemakers, were 
all busily employed in their respective work- 
shops. Besides these some were engaged in 
straw work, and others in making cigarettes. 
There was also a blacksmith's forge where a 
pair of bellows worked away furiously. 

"Now you must come and hear the choir sing," 
said the Director, and he led us into a large 
empty room. After we had waited a few 
minutes the singers came in ; there were eleven 
of them. They took their stand at the further 
end of the room and sang, first a church choral, 
then a serenade, and finally, when we entreated 
for more, a light piece which they called a 
polka. The leader stood facing his companions, 
and kept time with his right hand. Before his 
prison days he had been a singer by profession, 

149 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

and the beautiful music to which we now 
listened was a result of his careful training. 
The rich deep voices filled the empty room. It 
was like listening to the rolling strains of an 
organ. A tenor took the solo part in the second 
piece, and sang it with so much taste and feeling 
that we could hardly find words to express our 
delight. If only free, those men could have 
made their fortunes over and over again in 
England or America ; but what were they when 
we looked at them as the last faint echo of 
their beautiful singing died away ? A row of 
grey-coated criminals in a Siberian prison ! 

The Director's own carriage was waiting for 
us when we came out of the prison gates. " If 
you will allow me," he said as he handed us in, 
"I should like to take you to my house for a cup 
of coffee before we see anything more." 

We accepted the invitation with pleasure, 
so the gentlemen took their seats in another 
carriage, and we were soon on our way through 
the village. All the villagers we passed stood 
still and saluted the Director with the utmost 
respect. He was like a king amongst them. 
Yet his home, when we reached it, was surpris- 

150 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

ingly simple and unpretentious. Madame L 



came forward to welcome us on the threshold, 
and we found that a repast had been especially 
prepared for us under her direction. It was a 
very pleasant meal. Talking, it is true, was a 
difficult matter, but many smiles were exchanged, 
and by dint of mixing Russian, French, and 
German all up together we had no dearth of 
conversation. Later on the Director played us 
a violin solo, while his daughter accompanied 
him on the piano ; but this was not before he 
had gallantly escorted me to the piano and 
insisted on my playing something. As the old 
man stood there shouldering his violin, and 
wrapt in his music, he looked far more like a 
Sarasate than the Director of a convict 
settlement. What a wonderful power was his, 
we thought, as we watched him play — the power 
of ruling by love. 

" La force n'est pas dans la force ; la force est 
dans 1'amour." * 

Under the personal supervision of such a man 
even the most degraded criminal has the chance 

1 See chapter xv. p. 222. 
151 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

of beginning again. Hope is set before him 
from the outset ; he is surrounded by every 
influence that can raise him, and the implicit 
trust that is reposed in him brings back his 
self-respect and helps to start him afresh. If a 
rebellious spirit does show itself here or there 
in some hardened breast, it is with his fellows 
that such a man has to cope, not with the 
Director. " We will not let you shake the 
Director s confidence in us," say the others, and 
thus the rising evil is quickly stopped. Three 
hundred convicts worked on the railway line 
outside Irkutsk at the time I have already 
alluded to, but never a man tried to escape. 
Had one wished to do so, the others would have 
prevented him. 

When visiting the prisons of Tobolsk, I had 
noticed that every convict had all the hair 
shorn from either the left or the right side of 
his head according to the class of convicts to 
which he belonged, and as a rule they were 
heavily chained. At Alexandrovsk, chains are 
never used and the hair is never shorn ; there is 
nothing to distinguish the prisoner except his 

152 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

prison uniform of grey cloth ; and as soon as he 
leaves the prison to take his place among the 
villagers even that is abandoned. 

After lunch we drove to the schools where 
the prisoners' children are educated. There 
were classrooms for boys and girls respectively. 
In one we found a class of tiny girls standing in 
a row ; they were having a knitting lesson, and 
worked as fast as their little fingers could go. 
In another writing was being taught. A little 
Jewish girl from the Baltic provinces who under- 
stood Hebrew was called out to speak to us, but 
as we did not know that language we chatted 
with her in German, which she spoke very nicely. 

" We have two schools," said the Director : 
"one has its regular terms and vacations, but the 
other is always going on. The children of new 
comers are put into the latter as soon as they 
arrive; later on they are drafted into the former. ,, 

Not far from the schools were a number of 
miniature workshops, where we saw little boys 
of ten and twelve being taught the various 
trades that were to be their life work. It was 
pretty to see those little fellows so happy over 

153 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

their tasks, and their teacher patiently showing 
the small fingers how to turn a lathe, make a 
shoe, or bind a book, as the case might be. 
Each child received careful attention, for there 
were seldom more than four with one teacher. 

The hospital buildings stood apart. We went 
into two of them, and were pleased to find open 
fireplaces in the wards with cheerful fires 
burning. The nurses were all men, convicts 
like the rest ; they attended the patients attired 
in long white aprons. There were beds for a 
hundred and sixty, but only eighty-eight were 
occupied. Each hospital had its baths, supplied 
with hot and cold water, and special white 
bread was baked in the hospital kitchen for 
those who could not manage prison diet. One 
hospital was set apart for contagious diseases ; 
it also had its own kitchen and baths. 

The last places we had to visit were a creche 
for the young children and the public pleasure 
grounds. In the creche we found a bright 
motherly woman feeding little babies with 
bread and milk. The mothers were out work- 
ing in the fields. The Director tasted the food 

154 



A MODEL CONVICT SETTLEMENT 

and asked us to do so too, after which we went 
on to see the gardens. In the centre was a 
fountain, surrounded by carefully laid out 
flower beds, and seats for the people were 
scattered about under the trees. At one end 
was a tiny chapel such as one so often sees in 
Russia ; at the other, was a tea house built of 
light brown wood something like a swiss chalet. 

" We have an orchestra," said the Director. 
"Sit down under the trees and you shall hear it." 

The band now played a lively tune in the tea 
house, standing before a large open window. 
We sat down and pictured the prisoners stroll- 
ing about amongst the flowers or drinking tea 
with their wives and children while they listened 
to the music. 

" We must be going now," said the Director 
presently, as he looked at his watch. " I have 
ordered horses for you, and you must start at 
once if you are to sleep at Irkutsk to night." 

We all returned to the visitors' house together, 
and a few minutes later the three gentlemen 
and the convict servants stood on the steps to 
watch us depart. 

155 



Chapter XI 

TEAVELLING FOURTH CLASS— LAKE 
BAIKAL CONVICTS 

" /^\NE thing I must tell you," said a gentle- 

^^^ man of Irkutsk as we sat at his hospit- 
able board. " Your difficulties are only just 
beginning." 

" We heard that in Moscow," I replied, 
laughing, "and it has been repeated to us in 
every town on our way." 

"It is all very well thus far," continued our 
friend, shaking his head, " but now you will 
have to travel fourth class. There are no 
other carriages on the line ; you will have to 
spend four nights and three days in the com- 
pany of filthy emigrants, in very close company, 
alas ! for the train will be crowded." 

At the post office I met a Dutchman who 
was going the same way. 

156 



TRAVELLING FOURTH CLASS 

"It will be very rough travelling," he said. 
" I hope you have brought a letter from St. 
Petersburg ? " 

" Yes, we have a letter," I replied, " but how 
can that help us?" 

" You had better take it at once to the 
station-master," was the reply; "he may be 
able to prevent your compartment from being 
overcrowded." 

I at once took a droshky and drove to the 
station, a distance of two miles, for we were to 
leave at twelve that night for Lake Baikal, and 
there was no time to lose. Not a soul at the 
station understood anything but Russian. How- 
ever the station-master read the letter and 
reassured me with bows and smiles. 

When the evening came we had kind friends 
to see us off, and just before starting had 
the good fortune to be introduced to some 
agreeable German-speaking tourists. These 
gentlemen were going no farther than to the 
other side of the Lake. Like every one else 
they did their utmost to discourage us. " There 
will be no porters to carry your luggage," 

157 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

they said. " You will have to carry it your- 
selves." 

" We are taking no heavy luggage," I re- 
plied. 

We passed the night in pleasant conversation, 
forgetting the hard seats in thankfulness that 
there were no emigrants in our division. At 
5 a.m. we saw the Baikal. Then, in their efforts 
to help us, the tourists seized our baggage 
and lifted it out as soon as the train stopped, 
declaring that we might look in vain for porters 
at such a spot. At that very moment several 
of these useful personages hurried up and 
relieved our " Job's comforters " of their self- 
imposed task. 

There lay the far-famed ice-breaker, puffing 
dark smoke from its three huge funnels, and 
standing so high above the water level that 
we shuddered to think how it would roll if 
caught in a storm. Of the storms that are 
to be met with on the Baikal we had heard 
enough. 1 

1 "They say at Irkutsk," wrote Dr. Lansdell, "it is 
only upon the Baikal in the Autumn that a man learns to 
pray from his heart." 

158 




i 



8 



TRAVELLING FOURTH CLASS 

Like the model we had seen at the Paris 
Exhibition, the ice-breaker had a great door 
in its stern with rails laid down to receive 
goods in their trucks direct without unloading. 
As this part was not yet in working order 
we found men busily unloading and disappear- 
ing with their burdens through the cavernous 
opening. Passengers who had hurried ahead 
to secure the best berths were returning with 
downcast faces ; they had been told that they 
could not be admitted for an hour or more. 

Just as we were preparing to sit down on 
our baggage and wait with the rest, a ship's 
officer came out inquiring for the English 
ladies. He told us that a first-class cabin 
had been reserved for us and proceeded 
at once to conduct us thither. The other 
passengers looked curiously after us as we 
disappeared within the great portals. Passing 
through the body of the ship, a large ware- 
house-looking place, supported on either side 
by elephantine pillars of iron, we ascended a 
skeleton staircase at the further end and found 
ourselves in quite another world. Here was 

159 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

a luxurious saloon fitted up with every comfort, 
and a buffet at the inner end. A passage 
round the outside of it — reached by descending 
a few steps to right or left — opened into first- 
class cabins on the right and second on the 
left. Ours was delightfully airy, with a nice 
square window instead of a porthole, and two 
comfortable velvet-covered couches. We crossed 
the lake in about four hours and a half. The 
ice-breaker might have been on rails so steadily 
did it move along. 

The neighbourhood round Lake Baikal is of 
a volcanic nature. I heard from a doctor in 
Irkutsk that an earthquake was felt there 
about a year ago which disturbed the sick 
people in their beds. In winter the ice on 
the lake has the peculiarity that it closes 
together after having been cut through. This 
is the result of the continual pressure of water 
from the sides and of the many currents. * 
The Angara flows through the whole length 
of the lake. In addition to this cause of dis- 

1 Of the 336 rivers that flow into the Baikal the Angara 
is the only one that flows out of it. 

160 



>; TRAVELLING FOURTH CLASS 

turbance there are volcanic forces working 
below ; hence the tradition that a drowning 
man is thrown out, rather than sucked in, as 
would be the case in other waters. 

There are only four lakes larger than the 
Baikal — Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake 
Huron and Lake Nyanza. In shape and length 
it has been compared to the Tanganyika. The 
greatest depth that has been measured as yet 
is three thousand one hundred and eighty-five 
feet ; its height above the sea level is one 
thousand five hundred and sixty-one feet ; 
hence its bottom is much below the sea level. 
While its length is six hundred versts it is in 
parts only twenty-seven wide. Some of the 
mountains in its neighbourhood are very 
beautiful, but they do not rise more than four 
thousand five hundred feet above the water. 
The surrounding scenery is compared by some 
to that of certain parts of Scotland. The 
mountains form more than eighty capes, most 
of which have received their names from some 
particular plant, tree or fish, that happens to 
be found there. 

161 L 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

The island of Olkhon is considered sacred by 
the Bouriats, who believe it to be the hoine 
of an infernal deity called Begdozy, in whose 
keeping are the souls of the wicked. To this 
deity they offer innumerable sacrifices. The 
Mongolians also have a story about this island. 
They believe that it was once the home of 
Genghis Khan. 

In Irkutsk we heard a report, which has 
since been confirmed, that the land on the 
further side of the Baikal was rich in naphtha 
springs. To a lover of nature who has seen 
the desolation wrought by naphtha wells on 
the Caspian this news cannot fail to cause a 
feeling of regret. We shuddered at the thought 
that the beautiful shores of the Baikal might 
one day be polluted by the presence of a " black 
town," and the sweet country air be rendered 
noxious by the smell of petroleum. 

The way in which the presence of naphtha 
was discovered is curious. Near the mouth of 
the river Tourka a substance like wax is fre- 
quently to be found floating on the water. 
The natives call it baikerit or "sea wax," 

162 



TRAVELLING FOURTH CLASS 

and employ it as an external remedy for 
rheumatism ; it burns quickly, with a clear flame, 
and forms much soot. M. Chamarin, of Irkutsk, 
collected some of this substance and finally 
distilled from it a yellow oil containing all 
the properties of an excellent petroleum. 

In June and July one may generally count 
on having a calm passage. It is during these 
months that a quantity of wrack is thrown 
up from the bottom of the lake, and the natives 
call this "its flowering time." 

In winter, when the lake is crossed by sleighs, 
the ice becomes three and a half feet thick ; 
but, owing to the continual and violent move- 
ment of the water, it freezes slowly and the 
surface is not completely covered with ice till 
the end of December. Throughout the winter, 
in spite of the great thickness of the ice, 
immense fissures and heaps of broken ice are 
continually forming. The fissures are often 
as much as six feet wide and more than a 
mile long. Their formation is accompanied by 
a loud cracking sound like thunder. Water 
at once fills them and forms a kind of river. 

163 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

In about a week or a fortnight this river 
freezes, but at the same time new fissures are 
formed in other directions. In spring the ice 
takes two months to melt. 

There is a remarkable kind of fish said to 
be found only in the Baikal, — it is called 
" Golomianka " (Co?nephorus baicalensis), and is 
to be found in the deepest parts of the lake 
very far below the surface. It has never been 
seen alive, for when it rises to the sunlight 
it expires. It does not lay eggs, so say the 
fishermen, but gives birth to two young ones 
at a time. 

There are also several kinds of sponge 
peculiar to this lake ; one is of a rich green 
colour and contains chlorophyll. The natives 
use it, just as it is, to clean the copper of their 
samovars, while jewellers in Irkutsk use it in 
a dry state to polish silver. 

The railway round the end of the lake will 
hardly be completed before 1905, on account 
of the numerous tunnels required. 

While we were having our lunch in the 
saloon of the ice-breaker we could see from 

104 



TRAVELLING FOURTH CLASS 

the windows a group of exiled criminals, squat- 
ting on the deck, picnic fashion, with their 
wives and children around them. All looked 
perfectly happy and contented. One family 
sat on their heels in a ring, each child held 
a saucerful of tea in one hand and a piece 
of bread and butter in the other. Presently 
the father rose to pour out more tea, and we 
saw that a heavy chain was fastened to each 
foot above the ankle and caught up to his 
leathern belt. Sad indeed their lot might be ; 
but certainly, as we saw them then, they looked 
as happy as any gentleman's family on their 
own yacht. When we had landed, and were 
waiting for our train, we suddenly heard a 
great clanking of chains, and turning our heads 
in that direction saw a band of criminals march 
out of the great doorway, and deposit, one 
after another in a large heap, the regulation 
sacks in which they carried their worldly goods. 



165 



Chapter XII 

TRANSBAIKALIA 

A TRAIN composed of fourth-class carriages 
-*■**• stood waiting for the passengers as they 
came off the ice-breaker. We got into a com- 
partment and tried to keep it to ourselves, but 
there was no sign of starting, and more and 
more people kept coming in. Those who got 
there first took the lower places, and the rest 
clambered up on to the shelves above, which 
were three deep. At last those above us 
became an object of desire to two men of so 
dirty and unkempt an appearance that we 
became desperate. I put up my hands to ward 
them off, and cried " Conductor" in the most 
threatening tones I could muster. It was no 
use ; they had gone into the next division, but 
only to climb quietly over into our shelves when 
they thought we were not looking. The sight 

166 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

of a wretched pair of feet hanging out over my 
head was too much for me. I rushed on to the 
platform, and addressed the first man in uni- 
form I came across. This happened to be an 
engineer who had charge of that part of the 
line. As he spoke French I was able to explain 
what was the matter. He came with me at 
once to our compartment. The two men seeing 
him approach slid stealthily back the way they 
had come. 

11 This is not a fit place for ladies," said our 
new friend, looking round at our grimy com- 
panions — " and English ladies too ! Oh, this 
will never do. I will arrange something better 
for you," Then he hurried off. In a few 
minutes he came back to say that he had 
ordered an engineers private carriage to be put 
on the train for us. " You will have sleeping 
berths and a little room with a samovar, where 
you -tan make tea," he added ; " but it will not 
be ready for two hours. I fear you must wait 
here till then." 

The two hours seemed as though they would 
never pass, and the dirty men had climbed 

167 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

above us once more. At last, when it was 
getting quite dark, the engineer came again. 

11 1 am very sorry," he said, " but a telegram 
has come ordering us to keep the carriage I 
promised you for an official from St. Petersburg, 
who is expected shortly. His Excellency, 
M. Iswolsky and his family, who passed through 
last week, took all the other carriages. What 
I can do for you I will. A captain and six 
soldiers have got a luggage van to themselves. 
If you don't mind sharing it with them as far 
as Stretinsk, I will have part of it curtained 
off for you." 

" Anything, anything but this," we cried. 

Once more he left us and we waited on. The 
night was getting chilly and rain began to 
come down in torrents. At length two men 
appeared with a lantern. They were the 
engineer and the conductor. The engineer 
gave my mother his arm, and they escorted us 
out into the rain and along the line to the last 
carriage on the train. The step was very high, 
but we clambered in. 

How we blessed that kind engineer ! With 

168 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

curtains from his own house he had partitioned 
off one corner of the luggage van for our use. 
The deal boards that had been put there for the 
soldiers were all we had to sleep on by night, 
or to sit on by day. But that was nothing so 
long as we had it all to ourselves. The size 
of our coupe was ten feet by eight. In the 
centre of the van was a stove with a chimney 
going through the roof. 

11 The captain thought you might be cold, so 
he made the soldiers light a fire," said the 
engineer, and w T e were most grateful for the 
genial warmth, for we had got wet as well as 
cold in coming across. 

With heartfelt thanks we bade our deliverer 
good night, and the train started. It was just 
midnight. 

Of course there was no going to bed for us 
that night, or for the three that followed. 
We lay down just as we w r ere on our rugs, 
which we had folded as thickly as possible to 
take off the hardness of the eighteen inch 
boards. Oh, how r our bones ached after ten 
minutes in one position ! 

169 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

My mother had the side nearest the curtain ; 
a soldier slept on a similar board to ours on 
the other side of it, and she occasionally felt 
his elbow. We had a tiny window in the corner, 
so high up that to look out we had to stand 
on the seat. Still, we had it all to ourselves. 

Three days and four nights we spent in that 
luggage van. The soldiers and their captain 
were kindness itself. They fetched us hot water 
and milk at the stations, and when we came 
short of bread gave us some of their own, 
which was brown, with sour lumps of uncooked 
dough here and there. 

As the line was not yet open to the general 
public there were no buffets ready. We lived 
on bread, milk and tea. We washed our faces 
every morning with some of the water brought 
for tea. Happily we had neither dust nor 
extreme heat to contend with ; for there was a 
gentle and continuous rain nearly all the time. 

The next two vans to ours were prison vans. 
The windows were strongly barred, and instead 
of ordinary doors they had a sliding one in the 
side with a special lock. 

170 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

Four of our soldiers sprang out the moment 
the train stopped, no matter whether there was 
a station or not, and stood with shouldered 
bayonets one on either side of each of the 
prison vans. Whenever I looked up at the 
prison bars I saw a cluster of children's faces 
peering out — hardly ever a man's face. The 
prisoners must have spent their time in sleep. 
There certainly did not seem much danger of 
their escaping. Once one of the soldiers picked 
some flowers and handed them in to the 
children. They stretched out their hands 
eagerly, and looked so pleased to get them. 

For at least thirty-six hours heavy raindrops 
pattered unceasingly on the roof of our carriage. 
Every bit of low-lying ground had become a 
marsh, and the trees and bushes were heavy 
with water. The many streamlets that we 
passed were overflowing their banks. It was 
evening when the weather at last showed signs 
of change. Ahead of us the rain clouds had 
become a bright blue, which contrasted strangely 
with the brilliant green of the landscape. 

Early on the morning of the third day we 

171 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

reached Chita, and found it to be a flourishing 
town picturesquely situated among wooded hills. 
Many of the best houses, as I afterwards learnt, 
were hidden from view, and it was really a 
larger place than it looked from the station. 
We had introductions to people in Chita, and 
had fully intended to spend a few days there, 
but the thought of leaving our cosy corner and 
having to travel for the rest of the way with 
emigrants was too appalling. We decided to 
go on in the luggage van, to which we had 
become quite attached, and not to break our 
journey again till we got to Stretinsk. 

We were now travelling through the region 
known as Transbaikalia, which covers more 
square miles than the whole of the German 
Empire. Lying between Lake Baikal and the 
Upper Amur, it is bounded on the north by 
Yakutsk, a country of reindeer, frozen marshes, 
and unfriendly climate, and on the south and 
south-east by China. 

The entire surface of this territory may be 
characterized as mountainous, with the excep- 
tion of one narrow strip of country in the 

172 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

neighbourhood of the river Orion. Its highest 
peaks, many of which are covered with snow 
throughout the whole year, belong to the 
Yabloni chain, which, commencing in Mongolia, 
crosses the frontier and divides Transbaikalia 
into two great terraces of almost equal size. 
These terraces again are divided by other and 
lower chains of mountains separated from one 
another by narrow valleys and occasional pla- 
teaux covered for the most part with dense 
forests, many of which have never been 
penetrated by human foot. 

The land is watered by many rivers, a number 
of which are navigable and afford valuable 
ways of communication. Their most important 
basins are those of Lake Baikal and the rivers 
Lena and Amur, The Selenga, which, rising in 
Mongolia and crossing the frontier in the 
vicinity I of Krachtka, waters the most fertile 
part of the country, flows at length into Lake 
Baikal, and forms a waterway between Russia 
and China, whose importance, great as it is at 
present, is likely to increase rather than dimin- 
ish as the years go on. Until the year 1894 the 

173 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

navigation of the Selenga was in the hands of a 
steamship company. Today no such company 
exists, and the whole of this extensive water 
traffic is a source of untold wealth to one 
private individual ! 

To men with capital Siberia is indeed a land 
of promise, and the case in point is a remark- 
able instance of that truth. When the S&enga 
Company dissolved, a Siberian merchant, M. 
Niemtchinof, stepped in and bought up all its 
steamers and barges. As no competition exists 
this gentleman has it in his power to impose 
the most extravagant freightage, which often 
exceeds the value of the goods themselves. 
Besides a large quantity of other merchandise, 
it is estimated that upwards of 80,000 puds of 
tea pass annually from China into Russia by 
way of the Selenga. 

Another river of extreme importance to this 
territory is the Shilka ; it is formed by the 
confluence of two smaller streams, the In- 
goda and the Onon. So far the Ingoda has 
not been navigated ; it is, however, of great use 
to the inhabitants of the interior, who float 

174 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

their goods upon its waters by means of rafts, 
which, on arriving at their destination, are 
usually broken up and used for firewood. 

From the interior the Shilka flows in a north- 
easterly direction till, widened by the waters 
of several important affluents, it empties itself 
into the Amur, to which it has become equal 
in size if not in length. Thus it forms a con- 
tinuation of the great waterway of the Amur. 
Steamers belonging to the Amur companies 
proceed up the Shilka to Stretinsk and about 
two hundred miles beyond. It is more than 
probable that within the next few years a 
special flat -bottomed steamer will be intro- 
duced, such as is now being used so success- 
fully in Canadian rivers w T ith water only one 
foot deep. It will then be possible to navigate 
not only the whole length of the Shilka, but 
also the greater part of the Ingoda. It must 
be remembered, however, that these Siberian 
rivers are not merely covered with ice, but 
frozen to their lowest depths for more than 
half the year, and can be navigated only 
between the months of April and October. 

175 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

During that time another hindrance is often 
met with in the shape of dense white mist, 
which makes it impossible for steamers to pro- 
ceed, and consequently keeps them stationary 
till eight if not ten o'clock in the morning, when 
it is finally dispersed by brilliant sunshine. 

The temperature of Transbaikalia is peculiar. 
Sudden changes from great heat to intense cold 
are frequent, and July is the only month of 
the year that is entirely free from frost. It is 
here that the earth is in many places frozen 
all the year round to the depth of several 
feet beneath the surface. Yet in spite of this 
phenomenon the country is in the main wonder- 
fully fertile, and well adapted to the several 
branches of agriculture. Healthful rains in 
springtime, cloudless sky in summer, and a 
transparent atmosphere coupled with the 
strength of the suns rays, all work marvels, 
and within an almost incredibly short space 
of time the wintry scene is transformed to 
one of verdant beauty. 

It was not till the year 1664, that is more 
than sixty years after Yermak had conquered 

176 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

Western Siberia, that Russians first penetrated 
as far as Transbaikalia. Before that time the 
country was inhabited by Tungiis, Daurians, and 
Mongols. From the last-named people we learn 
that it was here, on the banks of the Onon, that 
their great chieftain, Genghis Khan, first saw 
the light of day. Even now native tribes 
venerate the name of that celebrated hero, 
and recount to their children those wondrous 
legends of his prowess that have been handed 
down to them from generation to generation. 

The present population may be divided into 
three principal groups : peasants, Cossacks, and 
aborigines ; while colonists, soldiers, convicts 
and exiles form only a very small part of 
the whole. 

The peasant population is composed chiefly of 
men who have left Russia for Russia's good ; 
but there are voluntary emigrants among them, 
and there is also a large proportion of families 
who have been exiled on account of their 
religion. 

The Cossacks of Transbaikalia occupy the 
fourth place among the eleven branches into 

177 m 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

which the Cossack race may be divided, viz. : 
those of the Don — of Kouban — of Orenburg — 
of Transbaikalia — of Tersk — of Siberia — of the 
Urals — of Astrakhan — of Semiretchensk — of 
the Amur — and lastly of the Ussuri district. 
According to the latest statistics they number 
in Transbaikalia as many as two hundred thou- 
sand souls. In return for their military services 
they are exempt from taxes, and enjoy certain 
other privileges which are not granted to the 
ordinary Siberian settler. 

When Russia wished to colonize the Amur 
Province after its conquest in 1854, she carried 
off five thousand Cossacks from this district and 
posted them at various points along the Amur 
river. It was by the descendants of these men, 
wild, untaught, and savage to the backbone, 
that upwards of six thousand helpless Manchus, 
some of them women and children, were 
brutally massacred outside the town of Blago- 
vestchensk in July, 1900. 

The aborigines of Transbaikalia are repre- 
sented by two tribes, the Tungus and the 
Bouriats. The former are Shamanists ; they 

178 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

lead a nomadic life like other mongol tribes, 
and are to be found from the Yenisei to 
the Pacific Ocean. They spend most of their 
time in hunting and fishing. The latter — the 
Bouriats — are Buddhists, and have for their 
religious worship in different parts of the 
country a building called a " datsan." There 
is a famous one about twenty-five versts from 
the town of Selenghinsk on the Selenga. The 
architecture of the " datsan " is decidedly 
Chinese, as also are the pigtails of the men. 
Living as they do, so close to the frontier of 
China, these people have probably borrowed 
many of their customs from that country. 
With the help of wide pasture lands they 
breed not only cattle, but camels, horses, 
sheep, goats and pigs. The animals are turned 
out to graze in great herds and find their own 
food during a good part of the year, apparently 
unaffected by the severity of the climate. A 
large trade is carried on in the skins of their 
cattle, which are sent in great quantities to 
Irkutsk, where they are used for packing tea. 
Like most regions of Siberia, Transbaikalia is 

179 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

rich in minerals. Its silver mines are already 
famous, but its gold, copper, lead and coal 
mines have hardly begun to be exploited. 

In July, 1900, that section of the great 
Siberian railway, which runs through Trans- 
baikalia as far as Stretinsk, was declared open. 
It has in all thirty-four stations. The first, 
Myssova, is situated close to the eastern land- 
ing stage of Lake Baikal, and takes its name from 
the neighbouring town, or rather village, whose 
population is composed for the most part of 
exiled criminals of the worst type. Robbery, 
theft, and even murder, are here the order of 
the day. Every respectable Russian must be 
able to produce his passport when required, 
and escaped convicts having no papers of their 
own are anxious to possess themselves of those 
belonging to their neighbours. Many a foul 
murder is the result. 

From Myssova our train passed through 
Verkne-Oudinsk, Chita, and Nertchinsk to 
Stretinsk, which is at present the terminus of 
the railway. 

Verkne-Oudinsk, on the Selenga, is one of the 

180 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

oldest Russian towns in Transbaikalia. Its chief 
church, which goes by the name of a cathedral, 
dates as far back as the year 1745. There are 
three other churches, a number of chapels, a 
Jewish synagogue, and flourishing schools for 
boys and girls respectively. An annual fair 
held in the month of January has an important 
effect on the trade of the country, and numerous 
factories, chiefly of soap and candles, with a 
brewery and seventeen tanneries, keep the 
lower classes of the population well employed. 

The town of Chita, to-day the most important 
in Transbaikalia, is reached, starting from Lake 
Baikal, after a journey of three days and three 
nights, the train moving at the rate of ten to 
seventeen miles an hour. With the exception 
of Verkne-Oudinsk no towns of interest are 
passed on the way. The stations all along the 
line at regular intervals are hardly worthy of 
the name ; a tiny log cottage and a water tower 
are often the only signs of life visible when the 
train pulls up, and it is well for the comfort 
of travellers that they have a buffet on board. 

In the year 1827, when Chita was chosen as a 

181 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

place of banishment for certain political offen- 
ders, the Decabrists, it was still an insigni- 
ficant village with scarcely three hundred in- 
habitants. The men who were sent there 
belonged to the highest aristocracy of Russia. 
On their arrival the prison house was found 
to be absolutely unfit for habitation. A new 
prison had to be built, and the exiles were 
ordered to take part in the work. Thanks 
to their energy, the new building was com- 
pleted before winter set in. The wives of 
many of these noblemen followed their hus- 
bands into voluntary exile, and, after under- 
going untold hardships succeeded in reaching 
Chita, where they remained till the period of 
banishment was over. The brave conduct of 
these heroic women moved every heart. The 
poet Nekrasof has immortalized their names 
in a beautiful poem, which opens with a father s 
lament at his daughters determination to brave 
unprotected the unknown horrors of a journey 
into the heart of Siberia. The poem has 
been translated into French ; it is entitled " Les 
Femmes Russes." Up to this day there is a 

182 



TRANSBAIKALIA 

street in Chita called " the Street of the Ladies " 
in their memory. 

During the three years and seven months of 
their self-imposed banishment these ladies did 
much to improve the state of the poor around 
them. Their influence and their money gave 
new life to the place. From that time it began 
to improve rapidly, and the improvement has 
been going on ever since. When the Manchurian 
war broke out in the autumn of 1900 Chita 
became a halting-place ; for officers and troops 
on their way to Manchuria. In September the 
town was described to me as " quite gay " with 
ladies who had accompanied their husbands and 
brothers as far as they could on their way to 
the front. 

Chitd, is becoming an important commercial 
centre. Its industries are developing rapidly 
and its annual revenue is 100,000 roubles. In 
1897 the first number of a Siberian journal 
appeared here under the title of Life in the 
Orient. Exempt from censorship, it is published 
both in Russian and Mongolian. There is also 
a daily paper. 

183 



Chapter XIII 
STRETINSK 

If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this 
thing that disturbs thee, but thy judgement about it, and 
it is in thy power to wipe out this judgement now. 

M. Aurelius. 

HPHE next town of interest through which 
we passed was Nertchinsk. It is a very- 
old town compared to Chitd, for it dates back 
to the year 1658. Dr. Lansdell (in refer- 
ring to the inaccessibility of the place when 
there was no railway) wrote : " Nertchinsk is 
five thousand two hundred and fifty miles east 
of St. Petersburg, seven hundred miles nearly 
due north of Pekin, about four hundred and 
eighty miles north of the Chinese wall, and 
one thousand miles west of the Pacific." 

At such a distance the horrors of convict 
prisons could be safely magnified. As for 
ourselves, our intention to inspect, on our 

184 



STRETINSK 

return from Japan, the mines of which we had 
heard so much, was frustrated, the insurgents 
having set up batteries along our route. I can- 
not therefore speak from personal observation. 
Convicts certainly do work in the mines up 
to the present day, but they receive regularly 
a tenth of the sum gained by their work. It 
is also true that all the work that has to be 
done in connexion with the prisons is done by 
the prisoners. When the time of their sentence 
has exjnred they leave the prisons to join the 
ranks of those who have been transported for 
life. The number of men in Transbaikalia 
alone who have been transported for life is no 
less than seventeen thousand. Many of them 
are both very poor and very lazy and their 
presence is by no means agreeable to their more 
respectable neighbours. When a number of 
these lawless men plot mischief it is in their 
power to do a great deal of harm. Only as 
far back as the beginning of September 1900 
a band of these desperadoes lifted the rails in 
front of a train that wason its way from Lake 
Baikal to Chitd, They had noticed that it was 

185 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

composed of luggage vans, and were prepared 
for plunder. The train smashed up. It was 
not carrying luggage, but soldiers bound for 
Manchuria ! No less than eleven of these un- 
fortunate men were killed on the spot, while 
thirty others were seriously wounded. As for 
the wreckers, they disappeared as soon as they 
discovered their mistake. 

I am thankful that the van in which we 
travelled was not considered worthy of being 
thus wrecked. 

There was a young topographer, with his 
newly married wife, on another part of our 
train. They were bound for Khabarovsk. I 
used to see them get out at the stations. 
While the devoted husband ran with a big 
tin kettle to fetch water, the wife would pick 
flowers or glance at me with a supercilious air 
as though she wondered where on earth I 
had come from ; and well she might wonder 
to see me regularly disappear in the direction 
of the convict vans, while the rest of the 
passengers were taking their seats in the fourth- 
class carriages. 

186 



STRETINSK 

Three days and three nights had passed since 
we crossed the Baikal, and we were half 
through our fourth night in the van when the 
captain woke us with the words " Stretinsk, 
Stretinsk ! " 

The train had stopped, but there was no need 
for haste, for we had reached the terminus of 
the railway, and could go no farther. We 
strapped up our rugs by the light of a candle 
with which the captain provided us, and were 
just wondering where we should find an hotel, 
when a man of the Hebrew race in ship's 
uniform appeared on the scene. He told us 
in broken German that he was the captain of 
a steamboat, bound for Blagovestchensk, and 
would take us there for I forget how many 
roubles each, 

" My boat starts at 8 a.m. tomorrow," he 
said. " You will not need to go to an hotel ; 
you can come on board at once." 

This sounded very tempting, but I replied : 
" We are going by the post steamer." 

" Ah, then you must wait five days and 
perhaps longer," he replied, " for the post 

187 



A RIBBON OF .IRON 

steamer is not in yet, and when she comes she 
will stay here several days before starting." 

Seeing me obdurate, the man departed some- 
what crestfallen to try his luck with the other 
passengers. The doors of the convict vans were 
now slid back and the convicts stepped out one 
by one, their chains clanking as they walked. 
Each carried a white sack such as I have 
already described. One by one they walked to 
the river side and deposited their sacks in a 
heap. How each knew his own sack again, I 
never knew. I suppose they were numbered. 
This done they were marched into a large ferry 
boat that lay waiting. Then our things were 
carried down. We had not the faintest notion 
what was going to happen next, till the captain, 
who understood that we wished to go to an 
hotel, pointed across the river to where the 
town lay, and explained by signs that we too 
must go across in the ferry. He next pointed 
to a soldier who had come to meet the train, 
and made us understand that he had given him 
orders to find us an hotel. We were not sorry 
to have a protector, for day was only just 

188 



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STRETINSK 

beginning to break, and the river looked very 
weird. As for the town, we could not see it, 
for its lights were out. All the convicts had 
to be packed into their end of the ferry boat 
and then we went on board. The soldier had 
bought us tickets at two kopeks 1 each; we were 
then ferried across. It was difficult to find a 
droshky, and when we found one the man 
refused to take any baggage, so we had to look 
for a second. At last w^e were started, and 
drove to an hotel. After we had waited an 
age, a man, who had evidently been roused 
from a deep sleep, came to the door and told us 
that every room was engaged. Just then we 
caught sight of a tall priest in a long brown 
coat with loose sleeves, and a straw hat over 
his long curly hair, who walked past our 
droshky. We had seen him on the train ; he 
too w r as looking for a room. 

We now drove in the direction of a second 
hotel. I confess that I felt glad that the priest, 
being on foot, would not be able to get there 

1 A kopek is equal to J of a penny, 
189 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

first. But my selfishness was well rewarded, 
for the second hotel was also full. The priest 
must have walked fast, for here he was again. 

Our third attempt was, however, crowned 
with success. There was a room that we could 
have. While our things were being brought in 
the priest again put in his appearance. I felt 
generous now, and was quite pleased when he 
also got accommodation. 

The droshky man would take nothing less 
than three roubles, the most exorbitant price 
we had ever paid, considering that all the hotels 
were fairly close together. 

Our soldier now left us, and we retired, not 
for the night, for that was gone, but for the 
short time that remained before it was broad 
daylight. The room contained a wretched bed 
and a worse sofa ; the springs of the latter were 
broken and rose in lumps with pointed corners, 
as I soon discovered. I lay still till I could see 
my way about, and then went to look for the 
kitchen in the hope of getting hot water for a 
bath. It was no use trying to sleep. A few 
planks with great spaces between them, and 

190 



STRETINSK 

a sheet hung over the whole, was all that 
separated us from our next neighbour, who 
snored loudly. Two sides of the room had 
windows without shutters, and the fourth side 
a door with cracks. In one corner of this cow- 
shed, for it deserved no better name, was a 
Japanese screen. This article of furniture 
rejoiced my eyes, not only because it was the 
first sign to remind us that we were nearing 
Japan, but also because, by standing behind it 
in the corner of the room farthest from the 
door, I could just manage to escape the obser- 
vation of the people who were already passing 
the blindless windows. I do not quite know 
why, but I was in a towering rage. Thinking 
it might be partly due to hunger, I. made some 
tea from the water that was left in the 
samovar after I had had my bath. 

"What makes you so cross?" said my mother, 
who had slept in spite of the snoring. 

" Let us leave this wretched hole," I cried ; 
"nothing would induce me to spend another 
hour in it. I will go out and explore while you 
take your bath." 

191 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

At the door I met a party of travellers who 
had just arrived from somewhere. The first 
was a Russian officer. I addressed him in 
French, then German, then English, but to no 
purpose ; he simply pointed to two little girls 
who were behind. I was just trying German 
on the little girls, who looked greatly bewil- 
dered, when a lady came up. I turned to her 
in desperation and asked if she spoke French. 

" Of course I speak French," she replied, and 
she tossed her head with a look of astonishment, 
as much as to say, " Pray what next?" 

."They have put us to sleep in a cowshed," 
I cried. " Oh, when will the post steamer 
arrive? This is beyond endurance." 

" We have just come by the post steamer," 
replied the lady, gradually thawing. " It will 
remain here two days, after which it will start 
for Blagovestchensk. You can go on board at 
once. It is not a steamer, but a barge drawn 
by a rope. You will have to change into a 
steamer at Pokrovskaya, where the Shilka joins 
the Amur. I will come with you to the agent 
and intrepret." 

192 



STRETINSK 

Most gratefully I accepted the offer, and we 
were soon on our way to the wharf. The agent 
was very polite. He showed much commisera- 
tion when he heard how we were situated. 

"By all means go on board at once," he 
said. 

Returning to the hotel I ordered a droshky to 
wait at the door, and went to fetch my mother 
and pay the bill. I had to stamp my foot 
before the man would bring it. He thought it 
too early in the day. When he did bring it 
I found that he had charged three roubles for 
all that misery, besides food ^nd attendance. 
Just as our baggage was being brought out the 
lady who had gone with me to the boat came 
to see if our room was any better than the one 
they had given her. 

" This is as bad as mine," she said. " I may as 
well stay where I am." 

11 Are you travelling for pleasure f " was her 
next remark. 

" We are travelling to see, but not to suffer," 
I replied, and then I asked if she was travelling 
for pleasure. 

193 n 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

" My husband is a colonel," she answered. 
" We have been stationed for three years at 
Blagovestchensk, and are now only too thank- 
ful to leave it. But there is an Englishman in 
our party, so you can talk your own language," 
and she turned to a young artillery officer who 
stood near. It had never entered my head that 
a Russian officer could be an Englishman. He 
came up looking rather shy. 

" I have lived so long in Blagovestchensk 
without hearing a word of English," he said, 
"that now I find it difficult to speak." 

" We will come and see you on the boat," said 
the lady as we drove off. When they came, 
they found us comfortably ensconced in a little 
first-class cabin with three berths. 

" Ah ! you were wise to come here," they said ; 
"the hotel is indeed dreadful. Our train does 
not start till midnight." 

I expressed a hope that they would enjoy 
travelling with the emigrants. 

"We are a large party," the lady replied. 
"We shall get a whole carriage to ourselves, 
so it won't be so bad." 

194 



STRETINSK 

During the two days and a half that we were 
obliged to wait in Stretinsk we made a home of 
the cabin and went to the Station Hotel for 
our meals. The Station Hotel, notwithstanding 
its grand name, was but little better than the 
one I have already described. When entering 
it for the first time we turned back on the 
threshold, thinking we had got into the kitchen 
quarters by mistake. Such was the best hotel 
in Stretinsk. 

Stretinsk is a Cossack town extending for 
nearly three quarters of a mile along the east 
bank of the river Shilka. A range of pictur- 
esque hills rises abruptly behind the narrow 
line of houses, and prevents the town from 
spreading in that direction. Houses are rapidly 
springing up on the other side of the river ; but 
behind them also there are hills, so that by the 
very nature of the place it must always increase 
lengthways along the river. 

Our spirits rose when we looked at the river 
Shilka for the first time, for it was wider and 
deeper than we had been led to expect. 

" The water is rising," we were told ; " there 

195 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

will probably be enough water to enable you to 
start at the appointed time." 

"What do you think of Stretinsk?" asked the 
Colonel's wife when she came to see us. " It is 
not a town at all you know, but just a big 
Cossack village, and it will never be anything 
else while it is in the hands of the Cossacks. 
They are great riders, great drinkers and 
great sleepers, that is about 'all." 

There was a bitter ring in her voice as she 
spoke, which found an echo in my own heart ; 
and our feelings towards the Cossacks did not 
become more friendly when, as we went 
shopping together, she was charged a rouble 
and a half (three shillings) for a piece of soap 
worth threepence, and I a shilling for a tiny 
bottle of methylated spirit. 

Until I arrived at Stretinsk and had personal 
dealings with them I had cherished a secret 
admiration for the Cossacks. Was not the 
brave Yermak, the first conqueror of Siberia, a 
Cossack ? And what would be Russia's position 
in the far East today but for the services that 
have been rendered to her by these brave 

196 



STRETINSK 

pioneers, half soldiers, half brigands though 
they be ? 

Our Cossack laundress never thought of iron- 
ing the things she washed for us. She spread 
them out to bleach in the sun, and brought them 
back rough-dried. Considering this, her price 
was exorbitant, being twice what we should 
have paid in Paris to have them properly done. 
But how could we be angry with her when she 
was the most beautiful woman of her class we 
had ever seen ! Lithe and tall as a young larch 
she held her head like a queen, and looked at us 
so innocently from her lovely grey-blue eyes 
that we were quite overcome. Her clear gipsy 
complexion was set off by strings of many 
coloured beads, which she wore round her bare 
neck. Amongst them was a handsome amber 
necklace, which hung down over her oriental 
looking kerchief, and added greatly to the 
general effect. A mass of rich golden hair was 
tied up loosely in two plaits at the back of her 
neck. She took a seat in our cool cabin without 
being asked, and gave a sigh of relief as she 
pushed back a stray curl from her hot forehead. 

197 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

The interpretation we put upon her words was, 
" Ah, you have no idea how hot it is up there on 
the hillside, where there is no shade." She was 
very grateful for a cup of tea, which happened 
to be ready on the table. As for the bill, we 
paid her all she asked, just because she was so 
beautiful, and were quite sorry when she rose 
to go. 

Some of these Cossacks are very good natured. 
One man, of whom I bought a large bag of 
walnuts, a nut so plentiful in these parts, took 
the trouble to crack each nut separately with 
a pound weight before he put them into the 
bag. And all this time his other customers 
looked on with laughing faces but not a sign of 
impatience. The predominant colour in the 
Cossack uniform is bright yellow. It is by this 
that they can easily be distinguished from the 
peasants around. 

Half the people we passed in the streets were 
Manchus, wearing wide brimmed hats, long pig- 
tails, and bright blue cotton blouses, over loose 
pantaloons of the same material. To me their 
appearance was quite girlish, and I actually 

198 



STRETINSK 

thought at first that some of them were women. 
These people strutted about with an air of great 
assurance, as though the place belonged to them, 
and squatted at the street corners in true eastern 
fashion. Their hats were the first straw ones 
we had seen since leaving Moscow. 

There was something else that reminded us 
how far east we had come, the sight of English 
and American pickles, tinned meats and biscuits 
in the shops. The high prices asked for these 
articles were not extravagant considering that 
they had come all the way round by Vladivostok. 



199 



Chapter XIV 
ON THE SHILKA 

Vdllig fremde und gegen einander gleichgultige Men- 

schen, wenn sie eine Zeitlang zusammen leben, kehren ihr 

Inneres wechselzeitig heraus, und es muss eine gewisse 

Vertraulichkeit entstehen. 

Goethe. 

/^\N Monday, June 18, we began our river 
travelling in good earnest. A lady, whose 
husband was director of a boys' gymnasium at 
Blagovestchensk, had come on board the previous 
night. She had a little boy three years of age 
with her. These two shared the third berth in 
our cabin. Opposite our door was that of the 
dining saloon. There was a long table down 
the centre and a wide velvet seat like a sofa 
running round the walls. Here we had lunch, 
dinner and afternoon tea. The first meal was 
served just as we were moving away from 
Stretinsk. 

200 



ON THE SHILKA 

The director's wife spoke a little French, and 
there were two young men from Riga who 
spoke German. A number of gentlemen pas- 
sengers came on board just as we were about to 
start. One of these was elder brother to the 
little boy in our cabin. He wore the uniform 
of a medical student and, as we afterwards 
learned, was returning home to Blagovestchensk 
for the summer vacation. The priest in the long 
brown coat was also there. 

I was greatly puzzled to know where all these 
people were going to pack themselves for the 
night. Besides our cabin there was a small one 
for two people in the very front of the boat, 
but this was already occupied by a gentleman 
and his manservant. When night came how- 
ever the mystery was solved, for all the men 
squeezed themselves into the dining saloon, and 
after drinking beer and smoking for some time, 
stretched themselves out upon the velvet sofas. 
As many of them did not rise till midday 
we ladies had to breakfast in our cabin. 

" We have great luck," said the directors wife 
when we were well started. " The water rose 

201 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

fourteen feet during the night ; but for that we 
should have been unable to proceed." 

It was very hot ; the sun shone each day with 
intense power between the hours of eleven and 
four. Then the air became steadily cooler till sun- 
set, when we were glad to put on warm wraps 
and even to draw our heaviest rugs around 
us. The cool fresh nights came as a refreshing 
boon ; they brought new life and sound sleep. 

When we awoke in the morning the air was 
still cold and bracing, and it was hard to be- 
lieve that at midday we should again be prostrate 
from the heat. There was no awning under 
which we could sit, and only a very narrow deck 
on which to walk or stand. We used to take 
chairs up from the saloon and sit wherever we 
could get the least bit of shade ; but about 
10 a.m. the sun was too high to be kept off in 
this way. The centre of the boat, or rather the 
roof of the house part of it, was covered with a 
large piece of tarpaulin. Some of the passengers 
used to climb on the roof and lie under it, but 
that was hot work. The only way to escape 
the sun was to go below, and then you were 

202 



ON THE SHILKA 

deprived of the life-giving breeze, and tormented 
to distraction by two kinds of flies. There were 
small ones, such as we have in every house at 
home, and large ones with green heads, larger 
than bluebottles. These latter have an unpleasant 
way of pricking you as if with a needle. They 
come very quietly, and the first intimation you 
receive of their presence is that merciless prick. 
Before trying to get an afternoon nap we used 
to flick every fly that was visible out of our 
cabin window and then hang a wet towel over 
the opening. When the heat was at its worst 
we sat with wet handkerchiefs on our heads and 
basins of cold water at hand, into which we 
could dip them as they began to dry. There was 
one happy couple who did not seem to mind 
either the flies or the heat so much as other 
people. They sat out in the sun for hours clasp- 
ing each other's waists and looking the picture 
of contentment. It was clear that this was 
their wedding trip. But what a honeymoon ! 
And where could they be going to ? The young 
man had a shock of uncombed hair, but the lady 
was a picture of neatness. 

203 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Before the end of the second day I saw the 
faces of quite a number of people I had not 
observed before. Who could they be ? and 
where did they come from, I wondered. We 
had certainly stopped at no town to pick them 
up. It was not until days after, when I made 
the acquaintance of some of them on the Amur 
steamer, that I discovered that they were in 
reality first-class passengers who, rather than 
wait for another steamer, were travelling third 
class, as first and second were full up. 

The scenery on the Shilka was very beautiful. 
Almost immediately after leaving Stretinsk we 
had high granite rocks on both sides of us, some 
rising bare and jagged, others covered with 
short thick fir trees. Once in a ravine we saw a 
large patch of unmelted snow. Happy snow, to 
keep cool while we were so hot ! 

It was considered dangerous to proceed in the 
dark, so the little steamer that tugged us along 
used to bring us to a convenient resting place 
about ten each night, and then, dropping the 
rope, by which we were drawn, into the water, 
wheel quickly round and attach itself to the 

204 



ON THE SHILKA 

shore for the night. In the meantime our 
boatmen unwound the anchor on our boat and 
dropped it into the river. At 5 a.m. we used 
to be off again. 

All our passengers were exceedingly gratified 
when we came upon the Jew's boat that had had 
nearly three days' start of us firmly stuck on a 
sandbank. The first thing I noticed was a party 
of boys bathing at the water's edge. Then a 
little farther on I saw a large motley crowd of 
people walking about like a swarm of bees. 
What they could all be doing on that bank, so 
far from any human habitation, I could not 
imagine. A few minutes later we were along- 
side of the Jew's boat, the Ural, and then I 
perceived that the people on the bank were the 
passengers who had turned out for a stroll or a 
bathe. They had been there a day and a half al- 
ready. How pleased and self satisfied we all felt, 
as we swept past, to think that the captain of 
the Ural had not persuaded us to go in his boat ! 

This was our third day on the Shilka, and 
we hailed its close with delight, for we were 
heartily tired of our shadeless barge. 

205 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

We had anchored for the night as usual, and 
with the exception of two young men had all 
retired to our cabins. About midnight hurried 
steps along the deck led us to open our window 
and look out. Some one, it was whispered, 
had fallen into the water. The excitement 
increased. Men and women could be seen whis- 
pering mysteriously in the semi-darkness and 
peering into the dark water. The halfmoon 
shone red in the sky but gave little light to the 
weird scene. A gentleman presently recogniz- 
ing my face at the window, stooped down and 
whispered in broken German the words " Student," 
" Mutter." 

The director's wife could not possibly have 
heard the whisper for she was in her berth at the 
other side of the cabin. It must have been her 
mothers instinct that made her get up quickly 
and rush on deck before I could speak a word. 
I followed her and soon gathered from those 
around that the student and a young German 
had gone out in a small boat to have a mid- 
night bathe, and that the latter had plunged 
into the river and been carried rapidly down 

206 



ON THE SHILKA 

stream. Feeling himself powerless to resist the 
current, he had cried for help, and a boatful of 
men had put off to the rescue. 

The poor mother stood wringing her hands 
and moaning piteously. She felt quite sure that 
both were drowned. Some dreadful minutes 
passed. Then we heard a shout through the 
darkness ; it was a shout of joy ; and the words 
" All's well ! " rang out clearly, first in Russian, 
then in German, and lastly in French. After a 
time the boat came alongside, and the student, 
leaping on board, sprang to where his mother 
stood. 

" Mother ! mother ! " he cried, " it is all right." 
But the poor woman stood speechless. She 
strove to speak, but the effort ended in a 
gasp. 

" Mother ! dearest mother ! " cried the youth, 
putting his arms around her. But she could 
not speak. I fetched some brandy and poured 
it down her throat. A doctor now came for- 
ward ; he had been attending to the German 
who had been carried in in a state of great 
exhaustion. Taking the poor lady's hand he 

207 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

led her back to the cabin, and her son followed 
in an agony of terror lest his mother's reason 
had been affected by the shock. They made her 
lie down, and after a little while, as they sat by 
her side, she fell asleep. When she awoke in 
the morning the power of speech had returned, 
to our immense relief, for we had shared the 
fears of her son. Sitting up in her berth she 
crossed herself many times, and then bowed her 
head in a prayer of thankfulness. 

As for the German, he looked very pale for 
some days, and spoke no more of river bathing. 
We heard later that his last thought in the 
moment of danger was for his aged mother, 
who had begged him so hard to find employ- 
ment nearer home and not to go to Siberia. 
He knew, he said, that a telegram announcing 
his death would kill her. The other German 
with whom he was travelling had stood with a 
cigarette in his mouth and a look of impene- 
trable calm during the whole of that painful 
scene. I was petrified by what I took to be his 
horrible callousness, and vowed inwardly that I 
would ignore his existence from that time forth. 

208 



ON THE SHILKA 

This vow I kept until about four days later, 
when we were on the Amur, and a lady doctor 
who had been with us on the Shilka— travelling 
third class — said to me, " I feel a kind of rever- 
ence for those natures that can bear the most 
acute mental torture with such outward calm- 
ness and such apparent indifference that on- 
lookers are deceived. Did you notice the 
behaviour of that German on the Shilka 
when he thought his friend was drowned ? " 

Several of the people on board had come 
direct from Moscow by the last post train. 
For them the drowning incident was neither 
the first unhappy occurrence nor the most 
tragic. Soon after passing the Urals their 
train had pulled up so suddenly that those 
who happened to be standing were thrown off 
their feet. A woman in the third class had seen 
a young man throw himself on the rails, from 
the platform between the carriages. A stream 
of blood along the line guided those who went 
in search to the spot where the young man lay. 
A ghastly sight awaited them, for the train had 
passed over his body and cut off both legs, while 

209 o 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

his head had received such frightful injuries 
that death must have been instantaneous. 

When the train moved on a cloud seemed to 
have fallen on the passengers. All merriment 
had been checked, and gloom had taken the 
place of smiles. This state of things lasted 
more or less till they reached Irkutsk. Here 
one of the passengers, entering a church an hour 
or two after his arrival, found an old man weep- 
ing piteously in a secluded corner. 

" What is your trouble, sir?" he ventured to 
ask. " My trouble ? " answered the old man be- 
tween his sobs. " I have just received news of 
the death of my son ; he was to have arrived by 
the post train today. Alas ! I know too well 
how it has all happened. He telegraphed to me 
from Moscow to say that he had got into the 
company of gamblers and lost all his money — 
two thousand roubles. I sent him money for 
the journey home, and told him to come at once, 
but the poor boy could not endure his disgrace, 
and — I have lost him." 

One long day on the Shilka was enlivened by 
the presence of two new passengers — ladies who 

210 



ON THE SHILKA 

came on board at one of the stopping -places 
early in the morning and left us after dark in 
the evening. The elder, who might have been 
forty years of age, had a jolly sunburnt face, a 
careless style of dress, and a straw sailor hat. 
The younger was a handsome girl of about 
twenty-five, dressed in a well fitting grey travel- 
ling dress, with a coquettish-looking pink ribbon 
round her throat and a dainty summer hat. 
Hearing us speak English she soon addressed 
us in that language, much to our surprise. 

" I have come all the way from Switzerland," 
she said with a pretty accent, " to visit this lady, 
who is my cousin. Her husband has gold mines 
on the Amur, and I am going to stay with them. 
Just think of it ! — when we get off this boat we 
shall have to take a four hours' drive in a spring- 
less cart, through a country without roads ! That 
will be the worst part of the whole journey." 

Then she went on to tell us that she too had 
travelled in a luggage van. She had bought 
herself a mattress in Irkutsk and slept on the 
floor. She had travelled under the protection of 
a Russian count who was bringing his wife a 
new maid from St. Petersburg. 

211 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

" We used to wash our faces every morning 
from a large tin mug," she said. "First the 
count washed his face, leaning out of the door- 
way, then he refilled the mug with water, and I 
had my turn ; the maid came next. Before we 
had got half way to Stretinsk a lot of Jews 
came in. They also had mattresses — so that the 
van was quite full." 

I told her that I had been asked by the editor 
of a lady's paper to write some letters about 
those subjects connected with my journey that 
were most likely to interest women. 

"How can I tell what will interest women ? " 
I asked. 

" Every girl ought to be interested in a journey 
like this," she replied, " no matter what part of 
it you describe. When I (am tired of the gold 
mines I shall take the route you are now taking. 
It is intensely interesting." 

We parted with many regrets in front of a 
most romantic looking little landing stage on 
the river's bank. Some day I hope we may 
meet again. 



212 



Chapter XV 

THE AMUR— SMOKING CLIFFS 

[T^ARLY on Thursday morning, June 19, we 
^^ reached Pokrovskaya, a village on the 
banks of the Amur, just where the Shilka 
joins it. The word " Pokrovskaya " is one that 
I shall never forget, for it was on everybody's 
lips from the moment they stepped on to the 
barge till the moment they left it. It was 
always " At Pokrovskaya we shall change into 
a steamer n ; " At Pokrovskaya the river will 
be wider " ; or, " After Pokrovskaya we shall get 
food that we can eat," and so on. 

The day had begun with a mist all round 
us, so thick that we could hardly see the banks 
of the river, but it cleared up as the sun began 
to shine and the weather became hot and 
sultry. 

213 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

The water in the Shilka was so shallow that 
there was a delay of several hours before we 
could come alongside of the steamer for Blago- 
vestchensk. For our comfort we were told 
that the boat which preceded ours had been 
delayed for want of water for three whole 
days at that very spot. A gentleman who 
followed in our track a week later informed 
me when he caught us up that matters had 
grown worse after we had passed through. 

" There is only a foot and a half of water 
in the Shilka now," he said. 

It was 11 a.m. when we changed into the 
steamer. The sun's rays were cruel as we 
crossed the bridge of planks that had been laid 
down for our benefit. How can I describe 
the scene ? Passengers from the steamer were 
as anxious to secure places on the barge as 
we were to leave it. Both parties made a 
rush for the bridge and met in the middle. 
Then it became a case of " dodge past who 
can." Third-class passengers carrying their 
own bedding squeezed past porters carrying 
the baggage of other people, whilst solitary 

214 



THE AMUR— SMOKING CLIFFS 

individuals, who had neither bedding nor bag- 
gage to hinder them, ducked between. Every- 
body was afraid that everybody else would 
secure the best place. That was the trouble. 
However there was plenty of room for all who 
wished to travel first class. There was a 
pleasant saloon across the prow, and a passage 
running down the centre of the ship opened 
into the middle of it. Cabins, each containing 
two wide berths, opened into the passage on 
both sides. The other end of the passage led 
up some steps to a higher deck, and here was 
a buffet where you could buy wine, beer or 
lemonade at any hour of the day. 

The previous passengers had not yet moved 
their things out when we took possession of 
our cabin. On my berth was a large round 
bundle tied up in a rug. I leaned against it, 
for I was quite exhausted. All at once the 
door opened and a Russian officer bounced in. 
He looked anxiously from me to the bundle 
and from the bundle back to me, said a few 
words in Russian and disappeared. A few 
minutes passed. Then he came again and be- 

215 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

haved in the same way, but this time I told 
him in French that I could not understand 
Russian. 

" Ah ! " he said, speaking French now, " I 
only wanted you to be careful, because there 
is a loaded revolver just where you are sitting 
and I was afraid it might go off. I will take 
it away as soon as I have had my lunch." 

As he spoke he rolled the bundle aside and 
showed me a large revolver. After that I 
rested on my mother's berth until the other 
passengers had removed their baggage. 

The steamer lay there all day till 6 p.m. 

" We shall be six days late," said the director's 
wife in tones of despair. "We are going to 
tug that great barge which you see being 
loaded. I telegraphed to my husband to meet 
us on Friday, but we shall not get to Blagoves- 
tchensk before Sunday now," and then she 
added still more emphatically, "I blush for 
the impunctuality of my country. Yes — I blush 
for Russia." But she did not blush for all 
that. 

A number of peasant women, who were 

216 



THE AMUR— SMOKING CLIFFS 

evidently going only a short distance, got into 
the barge just before we started and stood 
together in a closely packed crowd. Every one 
of them had a brightly coloured cotton hand- 
kerchief tied over her head, and there were 
hardly two shades alike. Red, pink, yellow, 
orange, blue and green — all were there. 

"Look at that bunch of flowers," said one 
of our passengers as we watched them from 
the upper deck. And truly the comparison was 
not a bad one. 

My memory of that day at Pokrovskaya is 
anything but pleasant. We had to fan our- 
selves incessantly to keep off swarms of those 
horrible green-faced flies. One pricked my 
hand while I was pouring out tea, and the 
pain was so sharp that I dropped the teapot. 
A gentleman who came into the saloon a 
minute later was quietly filling his glass with 
boiling water from the samovar when he sud- 
denly gave a frantic jump and only just escaped 
a severe scalding. 

The Amur is not a wide river as compared 
with the Yenisei or the Angara, and there is 

217 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

not much that is remarkable about its scenery 
after the first few miles. For hours together 
we saw nothing but undulating hills covered 
thickly with fir-trees. These would often 
change after a time to green pasture land 
without a sign of human life to relieve the 
monotony. 

" Which side is China ? " said my mother as 
she came on deck. " I want to sit with my 
face towards China so that I can see as much 
of it as possible." 

So we turned our chairs to the right and 
gazed upon the Chinese frontier. 

Here, as on the railway, we experienced great 
changes of weather and of temperature. The 
intense heat of the first day was followed by 
autumnal cold and heavy rain. The very 
sailors we had seen at their posts in cotton 
blouses were now going about in fur-lined 
ulsters. 

During the day there was always a sailor at 
the prow with a measuring pole. He called out 
the depth in a sing-song tone as he dropped 
the pole into the water and drew it out 

218 



THE AMUR— SMOKING CLIFFS 

again. There were so many sand-banks and 
small islands that it would have been impossible 
to proceed by night. Happily for us we con- 
tinued to have plenty of water. 

Here and there we passed a scattered Cossack 
village and stopped to take the letters of the 
priest, the schoolmaster, or the doctor, if there 
was one. The people themselves could neither 
read nor write. It was a pretty sight to see 
women and children hastening to the bank 
in their coloured dresses with bottles of milk 
in their hands ; the milk was eagerly bought 
by the passengers, especially by those of the 
third class who carried their own food with 
them and were glad to replenish their stores. 
First-class passengers paid two roubles a day 
per head for meals provided on board, and 
there was always a flourishing business carried 
on at the buffet. 

There were few signs of life on the Chinese 
frontier. Sometimes however we passed close 
enough to a village to distinguish the peculiar 
shape of the Manchurian houses, or the junk- 
like canoes tied up on the bank. 

219 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

On the second day we came to a part of 
the river called Tsagai'an, where there were 
sandy cliffs on both sides. The peculiarity of 
these cliffs was that smoke was curling out 
of their sides in many places. Something that 
looked like ashes had streamed out of the holes 
from which the smoke issued and lay in heaps 
on the yellow sand at the river s edge. I had 
heard that the phenomenon was caused by 
strata of ever-smouldering coal running through 
the cliffs ; but, from a fellow passenger who 
had made a study of the matter, I gathered 
that the so-called " coal " was a layer of wood, 
the roots of ancient trees, and that its smoulder- 
ing was brought about much in the same 
manner as that of a damp hay-stack in summer. 
The nearest village is also called Tsagai'an. 
The following account of this locality is so 
interesting that I cannot refrain from inserting 
it. 

" At this spot the river bank rises abruptly 
like a steep wall to the height of two hundred 
and fifty feet. The whole of the top of this 
wall is covered with moss, and because of its 

220 



THE AMUR— SMOKING CLIFFS 

resemblance to the closely shaven head of a 
Lama Manegr, it has received the name of 
Lama - Khadar which signifies the ' Lama's 
rock.' 

"The locality which goes by the name of 
Tsagaian (Tsag-aian, i.e. White Mountain) is 
venerated as a holy place by all the races of 
the Amur, the Chinese included. It extends 
for a verst and a half from Lama Khadar and 
terminates with steep and overhanging rocks. 
The whole of the Tsagaian is composed of 
yellow sandstone lying in horizontal strata, 
interspersed with strata of brownish coal which 
is in a state of perpetual combustion. Travel- 
lers on the Amur, who pass this spot at night, 
have before them a magnificent spectacle in 
the shape of these ever-burning cliffs." 1 

A few hours later we passed the mouth of 
the river Koumara opposite which there is a 
very steep rock with a stretch of level ground 
above. On this level ground stands a great 
cross decorated with iron and painted white. 
It bears a copper plate with the inscription, 
1 Guide to the Gh*eat Siberian Railway* 
221 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

La force nest pas dans la force> la force est 
dans V amour. The cross was erected by Baron 
Korf, the first Governor- General of the Upper 
Amur. The words above quoted were used 
by him on the occasion of the first meeting 
at Khabarovsk, " des gens competants," who 
were making a special study of the country's 
needs. The cross, which is surrounded by a 
railing of cast-iron, can be distinguished at a 
distance of fifty versts. 

At certain points the river curves round in 
a most remarkable manner. There are times 
when you see no opening in front of you at 
all. In one place our steamer twisted in and 
out between the rocks almost forming the 
figure 8 ; and it seemed that in another minute 
we should run ashore. 

" We are completely shut in now," said the 
lady doctor, "but there must be an opening 
soon. Let us guess on which side it will be. 
I think we shall turn to the left." 

We stood watching in silence for some 
minutes. All at once the steamer made an 
abrupt turn to the right. 

222 



THE AMUR— SMOKING CLIFFS 

"You see I was wrong," said she. "It was 
really impossible to tell." 

The land here became two peninsulas, one 
of them belonged to Russia, for it was formed 
by the right bank. The other, formed by the 
left bank, was Chinese territory. 




m.M.ii 



A POST HOUSE WHERE WE CHANGED HORSES. 



223 



Chapter XVI 

A CHINESE GOLD MINE— RUSSIAN 
MINES— BLAGOVESTCHENSK 

r I ^HE Russian territory stretching from the 
left bank of the Amur, as far north as the 
southern boundary of Yakutsk, is known as the 
Amur Province. In size it has been compared to 
Sweden, for its surface covers the same number 
of square miles. Its character is decidedly 
mountainous, some peaks in the north rise to a 
height of 7,000 feet above the sea level, and 
there are ravines with a depth of 2,000 feet. 
The mountains that are seen from the river are 
of no great height ; but they have the appearance 
of being gloomy and inaccessible. Thick forests 
of fir trees cover them so densely that one almost 
wonders how their branches have room to grow. 
The luxuriance of vegetation, so different from 
that of other regions through which we had 

224 



A CHINESE GOLD MINE 

passed, struck us very forcibly. Frequent rain- 
falls keep the country so green that it resembles 
the "Emerald Isle." In fact there is a great 
deal more rain than is wanted, and the dampness 
and moisture of the land are a drawback with 
which emigrants and settlers find it hard to cope. 
This state of things is caused by west winds 
which blow from the Pacific Ocean and carry 
water with them. 

The mineral wealth of the Amur region is 
inexhaustible. Iron has been discovered in great 
quantities, yet up to the present day no mines 
have been worked. Coal too is abundant, and 
numerous seams of the very best quality have 
been found. But the precious metal which has 
already attracted the attention of all the world, 
and affected by its presence the very life of the 
country, is gold. 

Of all the gold districts within the Russian 
Empire those of the Amur Province are second 
in importance only to those of the Urals in the 
amount of gold found in the sand of their rivers ; 
and to those of Yakutsk in the wealth of metal 
in their mines. 

225 P 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

From mines discovered in 1866 in the river 
systems of Dyalinida and Oldoi, by an engineer 
of the name o£ Anossof, and worked by a 
company, 2,500 puds of gold were extracted 
during a period of twenty years. These mines 
were then abandoned by the company, but 
private individuals who had been in its service 
continued to work them, and are still able, after 
paying the wages of the miners, to reserve for 
themselves an annual amount of sixty puds. 

The river Amur may be a natural boundary 
between two vast territories, and Russians may 
shoot across it, or vice versa, but for all 
that a description of the left bank is also a 
description of the right, especially as far as 
mineral wealth is concerned, and few people stop 
to consider their nationality when gold is in the 
question. 

The power of attraction that this metal has 
for human beings is exemplified in the story of 
the Jeltughinsk mines on the Manchurian 
frontier, not far from Pokrovskaya. They were 
discovered in the year 1883, and before the close 
of 1885 they had attracted a population of 10,000 

226 



A CHINESE GOLD MINE 

souls ! The sequel to the tale has its amusing 
side. Manchurian troops fell upon these greedy 
gold diggers the following year, and driving them 
away burnt up all the apparatus they had 
brought together. 

The greater number of the workmen employed 
in the Amur mines are Russian peasants. About 
2,500 are employed in the mines worked by the 
Upper Amur Company, the oldest company in 
existence. It exploits as many as ten mines a 
year. The work is done by means of open 
canals ; sand is carried to the washing machine 
in trucks placed upon rails, or by a kind of lift. 
Some of the machines are most elaborate ; there 
is a fine model of one in the museum at 
Khabarovsk. 1 The Company has its own steam- 
boats and there is telegraphic communication 
between the various mines. In the neighbour- 
hood there are churches, hospitals and two 
schools for the children of the miners. Other 
large companies have similar arrangements. 

One point in favour of the Amur gold mines is 
that the gold lies near the surface and is eonse- 

1 None of these are very modern. 
227 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

quently more easily obtained than that of other 
districts. It is often quite impossible to work 
the mines during the month of August owing to 
the fact that the soil is turned into mud by a 
superabundance of rain. 

The Director's wife had spoken truly. We 
did not reach Blagovestehensk till Sunday 
morning. Blagovestehensk, or " The town with 
the swear name " as I have since heard it called, 
unrolled itself with tantalizing slowness to our 
impatient eyes. We were all on deck, and there 
was a mustering of field glasses. Six whole days 
had passed since we left Stretinsk. We might 
have crossed the Atlantic in that time. No 
wonder we were all impatient. 

First came a few straggling " isbas " or 
peasants 1 huts, then some pleasant-looking villas, 
far apart, with their front windows looking out 
upon the river ; then an avenue of trees, and 
finally several solid-looking business houses of 
red brick, and an hotel. 

" You have missed the post steamer," was the 
first piece of news that greeted our ears, you 
will have to wait four days for the next. 

228 



A CHINESE GOLD MINE 

As there was now no need for hurry on our 
part we decided to let the other passengers land 
first. Accordingly we remained on deck and 
amused ourselves with watching them scramble 
ashore. A crowd of people had come down to 
meet their friends. The Director of the 
gymnasium was there, a fine old man in uniform, 
quite soldier-like in appearance, and a daughter 
who had married one of the masters of the 
school. The daughter was sobbing as if her 
heart would break, and all for joy. They pushed 
across the crowded bridge and made their way 
into the cabin, where the mother and her little 
boy were waiting for them, and a few minutes 
later we saw" the child riding triumphantly on 
his fathers shoulder as they all recrossed the 
bridge with beaming faces. It was a pretty 
scene, but ah ! how different it might have been. 
That mother, so happy now, had, as we heard 
from one to whom she had confessed it, actually 
meditated suicide when she thought her son was 
drowned that terrible night on the Shilka. 

" I should have jumped overboard myself,' 1 she 
had said, " and left the English ladies to take my 

229 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

little one to his father. I have lost one son, and 
could not live through another sorrow like that." 

One of the passengers who had landed now 
came back very kindly to tell us that we had no 
time to lose. " The captain has received orders 
to return at once to Pokrovskaya," he said. 

Not wishing to see Pokrovskaya again so soon 
I hurried on land to find a porter. The bridge 
was still crowded with emigrants and their 
baggage, or bundleage, if I may be allowed to 
coin such a word. Returning with a porter I 
confronted an unhappy emigrant with a big 
bundle of family bedding under his left arm, and 
a kettle and an open purse in his right hand. 
As he tried to make his way through the throng 
tea began to pour out of the kettle and rouble 
notes to flutter out of the purse. I wish I could 
have taken a photograph of that poor man's 
face ! 

Having been advised to stay at the Grand 
Hotel we drove there at once, and were glad to 
find more comfortable quarters than we had 
dared to expect. The manager spoke English, 
French and German, besides Russian, but his 

230 



A CHINESE GOLD MINE 

English was shaky from want of use. We were 
told that the owner of the hotel, a young man 
residing in Paris, was worth two millions Stirling, 
though some say that it is worked by a 
company. I have heard since that this hotel is 
famed all over Siberia as the best throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. It has not been 
open two years and is not mentioned in any guide 
book. The cooking would certainly have been 
excellent but for the fact that every dish tasted 
of bad butter. We tried eggs, but they were 
absolutely uneatable, and, worst of all, the bread 
was sour. If ever I meet that young man, 
" worth two millions Stirling " I will talk to him 
about the ice creams and the coffee, for these 
were irreproachable. 

It was now three weeks since we had left 
Irkutsk. As we had been travelling with the 
post all the time no letters or newspapers had 
caught us up, and we literally thirsted for 
European news. 1 Early on Monday morning I 

1 In fact no letters did reach us till we got to New York, 
where we received some by way of the Atlantic. We had 
telegraphed to London from Vancouver. 

231 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

inquired for the manager, and asked him if there 
was any fresh news from South Africa. 

" News from South Africa ! " cried the manager, 
looking surprised. " Why, the papers have done 
with that part of the world ; it's all Russia and 
China now. There will be a war between the 
two countries as sure as fate." 

It was now my turn to be surprised. 

" This must be something quite new," I replied. 
" There was not even a rumour of such a thing 
when I left St. Petersburg." 

" Yes, it has all come about very quickly," was 
the reply, and then we heard about the trouble 
in Pekin and Taku. 

"There seem to be as many Chinamen as 
Russians in this town," I remarked. " What will 
happen to them if there is a war ? " 

" The moment war is declared they will all 
have to leave," he replied, " every one of them." * 

After this conversation I took a walk in the 
town, and made one or two purchases. Most of 
the people I met in the shops and in the streets 
were Chinamen — that is, Manchus. Many of 

1 They numbered more than 6,000. 
232 



A CHINESE GOLD MINE 

them carried poles balanced across their 
shoulders with swinging baskets of vegetables or 
fruits, just as you see them in Chinese pictures. 
I had never seen so many of the yellow race 
in my life, and was much interested in studying 
their faces as they passed me. They struck me 
as being very ugly indeed. I tried to feel kindly 
towards them, and even went so far as to picture 
myself a missionary in a Chinese town. But it 
was no use. I returned to the hotel with a 
feeling of thankfulness that I was not a mission- 
ary, at least not to so unattractive a people. 
Alas ! at that very hour hundreds of poor 
missionaries in China were escaping for their 
lives, while many others were being cruelly 
murdered ; and, what is more, the days of many 
a Manchu into whose face I looked that morning, 
were numbered. 

The force and brilliancy with which the sun 
shone reminded me of the tropics. I returned 
to the hotel in a state of exhaustion, although it 
was not yet ten o'clock in the morning, and did 
not venture out again till the evening. In the 
night rain poured down in torrents, but the next 

233 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

morning the sun's rays were as fierce as ever. I 
believe that the great clearness of the atmosphere 
had much to do with the peculiar effect of the 
sun. 

That evening we sat in the dining hall of the 
hotel reading the papers and watching the people 
who came and went. Presently a party of 
Russians and a Chinaman came in ; they ordered 
beer, and sat down. The Chinaman was 
evidently of high rank. He was beautifully 
dressed and looked fat and sleek. Every time 
they raised their glasses to their lips the whole 
party got up, bowed, and shook hands. The 
Chinaman looked across at us occasionally as 
much as to say, "I wonder what those foreign 
ladies think of it all." 

The next morning I was surprised to find 
The Life of Tennyson for sale in a book shop 
close by. It seemed strange that they should 
have English books for sale if there was no one 
to read them. 

The chief occupation of the place is gold 
mining. Men who have made a little money at 
the mines in summer come to Blagovestchensk 

234 




Gold washing, near the Amur. 



A CHINESE GOLD MINE 

to spend it during the winter. They come with 
the determination to have a good time, and spend 
their money very freely. But for such people 
the shops would not flourish as they do, for there 
is practically no one else to buy. 

On Wednesday I was utterly incapacitated 
owing to the heat and the food. I remained in 
my room till about 3 p.m., when the manager 
suddenly appeared at the door. 

"May I come in?" he asked, and before we 
could answer in he walked. 

" You will be obliged to stay here, ladies," he 
said, in excited tones. " War has broken out, 
and all the steamers except the ' post ' have been 
chartered to carry soldiers to the seat of action. 
All the horses are being taken. I doubt if you 
will find one to take you to the boat. If you do 
go on under the present state of affairs you will 
run the risk of being shot at, if not stopped 
altogether. Take my advice and make up your 
minds to wait here until the war is over. It 
will all be finished in a month, and then you can 
go on in safety." 

"But the Chinese have not begun to go," I 

235 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

said ; " there are as many of them in the streets 
today as there were yesterday/' 

The manager shook his head. "Mark my 
word," he said. " In three days' time there will 
not be a Chinaman left in Blagovestchensk. 
Only twenty versts from here there is a Chinese 
army of 30,000 men. But the Russians are 
ready for them ; they will be the first to strike." 

As soon as the manager had left us I drank a 
glass of strong tea to settle my nerves. My 
mother had not caught the whole of the con- 
versation, as we had spoken in German. It was 
quite clear that Russian troops were being 
mobilized. We could see that with our own 
eyes from the window. 

In the dining hall I found groups of people 
talking earnestly in low tones. The towns- 
people, I gathered, were under the impression 
that Russia was about to surprise and take by 
storm a Chinese town called Aigun, situated on 
the banks of the Amur, only twenty versts from 
Blagovestchensk. 



236 



Chapter XVII 

THE SILVER GENERAL 

T T 7"E had been planning a trip to Ai'gun, as 
the most profitable way of passing the 
time till we could get a steamer to carry us 
farther ; but the thought of meeting thirty 
thousand Chinamen in arms was not attrac- 
tive. 

"Let us go to the office of the Amur Company 
and see if they confirm these rumours," said my 
mother. 

It had again been raining heavily, and the 
street in front of the hotel was completely 
flooded. Leroy-Beaulieu tells of a cow having 
been drowned in front of a gentleman's house. 1 
I am inclined to believe that the scene of that 

1 La Renovation de VAsie. 
237 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

tragedy was Blagovestchensk. It required a 
good deal of nerve on our part to drive through 
the water in a droshky. 

We were shown into a room full of clerks 
sitting at desks. They were all mounted on 
high stools. Lo and behold ! the first face 
that caught my eye was no other than that of 
the happy bridegroom with the uncombed hair ! 
We had " run him to ground," as an American 
lady remarked when I told her the story. 

" Is there any one here who can speak French 
or German ? " we asked. There was rather a 
sheepish look on the bridegroom's face ; he 
could only speak Russian, so remained silent. 

" Can I assist you ? " asked a gentleman who 
was standing there in a long coat and a wide- 
awake. As he spoke he came forward and took 
off his hat. One glance told us that he was an 
actor. His head was a mass of tight little curls. 
His features, his bright twinkling eyes and his 
every gesture reminded us of the stage. Hear- 
ing what we wanted, this gentleman came with 
us to the manager's private office, and was kind 
enough to act as interpreter. 

238 



THE SILVER GENERAL 

The manager remembered having travelled 
on the express with us as far as Omsk. He 
came forward and shook hands. My mother at 
once inquired sympathetically after the Mayor 
of Vladivostok and his broken ribs. 

" He was much better when we parted," said 
M. Letchetsky smiling. " I think his ribs are 
all right now.' 1 

We spoke about the rumours we had heard, 
and asked if war had been declared between 
Russia and China. 

11 We know nothing," replied our friend, " it is 
impossible to tell." 

"Is it true that all the horses are being taken 
to fight the Boxers ? " we asked ; " and is it true 
that there will not be a horse left to bring our 
droshky to the steamer?" 

"It is true that all the horses of any value 
are being taken," replied M. Letchetsky ; " but, 
though I cannot promise you a good horse, 
there will be plenty of decrepit ones left." 

The actor came out with us and gallantly 
helped us into our droshky, after which he 
stood, hat in hand, till we were out of sight. 

239 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

We spent the rest of that day at the house 
of the military governor, General Gribsky. 
Madame Gribsky was away in Moscow, but the 
daughter made an excellent hostess in her 
mothers absence. As for the general, he was, 
in truth, one of the handsomest men we had 
seen for a long time. I can see him now, with 
his fine martial figure, his silvery hair, his 
patriarchal beard and eyes that shone with 
kindly feeling from under his dark expressive 
eyebrows. How I wish that our English 
writers who describe the Russian commanders 
as men with harsh stern faces — who live for 
war and show no mercy— could meet with a 
few men like General Gribsky ! 

"Some years ago," said Mademoiselle Gribsky, 
as we were speaking about her father, " when 
we lived in Warsaw, my father used to w r ear a 
uniform with silver facings, and the governor 
used to call him * my silver general.' His hair 
turned grey when he was quite a young man." 

The governor s house is a charming old place, 
with as many as twenty-five good-sized rooms 
all on the ground floor and opening into one 

240 



THE SILVER GENERAL 

another. A new house is very soon to take the 
place of the old one. Better built it will be, 
no doubt, but it can hardly be more picturesque. 

The pretty garden runs right down to the 
river bank, and the verandah built on to the 
back of the house overlooks both, so that one 
can see right away into Manchuria. 

After tea Mademoiselle Gribsky took us for a 
drive to see first the town and then the soldiers' 
quarters. The coachman on the box was a 
Cossack, with a black velvet waistcoat and full 
sleeves of bright orange yellow, with a sash to 
match. 

One of the houses that attracted our attention 
was that of a wealthy Chinaman ; it was very 
large and built of red brick. In one of the 
upper windows sat a Chinese lady, busily 
sewing. This was the wife, a lady with tiny 
feet, who never allowed herself to be seen in 
the streets, we were told. 

The soldiers' quarters stretched out along the 
river side for quite a long distance. They 
formed a little town by themselves. There were 
pleasant looking summer quarters too, built 

241 q 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

amongst thickly growing oak trees, little villas 
for the married officers, a nice club house and a 
church. The different regiments had their 
respective flags stuck in the ground, with 
soldiers told off to guard them day and night. 
The soldiers stood with shouldered bayonets, 
and their faces were turned towards the Chinese 
frontier. A number of cannon also pointed in 
the same direction. Farther on still an artillery 
regiment, lately sent from Russia, had camped 
out in tents. At the door of one tent there 
were signs of merriment — some one was playing 
the banjo, and we caught a glimpse of a soldier 
inside dancing a sort of jig. As the Governor s 
carriage passed by laughing faces became serious, 
and we were respectfully saluted. We drove 
on till we came to the monument of Count 
Moravioff Amoursky. It had a railing round it, 
enclosing a piece of ground on which tall grass 
was growing. Thick-leaved oak trees grew on 
three sides of the monument, while the fourth 
faced the river. There was a cuckoo in the 
lower branches of one of the nearest trees as 
we approached. Instead of flying away it 

242 



THE SILVER GENERAL 

remained where it was and called out "Cuckoo ! 
cuckoo ! " I had never seen one of these birds 
so close before. 

The monument stands on the very spot where 
the count's horse stood as he proclaimed to his 
soldiers the joyful news that the Amur province 
had become Russian ground. It was on May 31, 
1858, that Count Moravioff arrived at the 
military post station of Oust-Zeisk, at the con- 
fluence of the Amur and the Zeia, and sent 
word home to the Emperor of the treaty that 
had been concluded at Aigun between China 
and Russia. That very day Archbishop Inno- 
cent laid the foundation stone of a church in 
honour of the Virgin Mary, and the station of 
Oust-Zeisk received a name which no English- 
man will ever be able to pronounce, the name 
of Blagovestchensk. I am told that this unpro- 
nounceable word means " good news." 

" Comrades ! " cried the count, " I congratulate 
you. It is not in vain that we have w T orked so 
hard. The Amur belongs to Russia ! May the 
holy orthodox Church pray for you. You have 
the thanks of your country. Long live our 

243 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Emperor Alexander II, and may the new terri- 
tory prosper under his protection. Hurrah ! " 

Count Moravioff died in Paris, but his body is 
eventually to be buried on this spot. We drove 
on and on, beyond the garrison and beyond the 
monument, till we came to some stone quarries 
on the hillside. These were being worked by 
Chinese quarrymen, They had little fires on the 
ledges of the cliffs, and some were cooking food. 
They were only semi-clad, and looked like savages 
in the gathering twilight. 

" So few people come out here to disturb 
them," said Mademoiselle Gribsky, " that they 
often discard clothing altogether in hot weather." 
The situation of Blagovestchensk, so close to 
two navigable rivers, has been most favourable 
to its growth. Manchus came across in great 
numbers and helped to people the place, while 
emigrants and Cossacks formed the bulk of the 
Russian population. After the year 1880 there 
were rapid changes. Gold mines in the neigh- 
bourhood were exploited, and another class of 
men was attracted. There is no beauty about 
the town. It has very few trees besides a 

244 



THE SILVER GENERAL 

pleasant avenue along the river side, and the 
Governor s garden is the only one worthy of 
the name. The shops are good and the prices 
reasonable. Kunst and Albers, the Hamburg 
merchants, have one of their branch establish- 
ments here, and I have heard that they supply 
the ladies of the town with the latest Paris 
fashions brought from San Francisco. Their 
latest novelty while we were there was a 
"chapeau boer," with a long feather trailing 
behind. 

Returning to the Governor s house we sat in 
the balcony till it grew dark, and were joined 
by the Vice- Governor with his wife and two 
nice little children. Some other little girls 
came in later. They were prettily dressed in 
pink, with light straw hats, and played amongst 
the trees in the garden like butterflies. All the 
children were devoted to the General ; they ran 
up to him as trustingly as if he had been their 
own father. The Vice-Governor's little daughter 
had lately returned with her mother from St. 
Petersburg. " The child gave me no trouble," 
said her mother. "When it was hot and she 

245 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

complained of thirst I had only to say, " Mother 
is thirsty too, dear/' and she never complained 
any more. 

There was something fascinating to us about 
the fact that we were sitting within a few yards 
of Chinese soil. While turning over some photo- 
graphs in a shop that morning I had come across 
one of the Governor of Aigun. 

" That button on his cap is a sign of his rank," 
said the man. He did not himself think the 
picture of any interest, and seemed surprised 
when I said I would buy it. How little either 
of us dreamed that Aigun would be burned to 
the ground before three weeks were over ! But 
so it was. 

As we sat in the verandah looking across the 
water, Mademoiselle Gribsky gave us an in- 
teresting account of a visit that she and her 
father had paid to Aigun. 

" We were there several days," she said. " I 
took notes of many curious Chinese customs 
during that time. They entertained us with 
wonderful dishes," she continued, "and put 
chop-sticks before us instead of knives and 

246 



THE SILVER GENERAL 

forks. Of course I could not eat anything, 
much as I should have liked to please the 
Chinese Governor by so doing. Think of it — 
one dish was composed of worms, quite ordi- 
nary ones, but most tastefully arranged." 

All at once our conversation was interrupted 
by a sound of bugle notes across the river. 

11 The Chinese soldiers wish us to know that 
they are there," said the Vice-Governor. " They 
have been treating us to that music four times 
during the night for the last three weeks, and 
it was our soldiers who gave them their music 
lessons," he added with a smile. 

At dinner we noticed that General Gribsky 
was in excellent spirits in spite of the fact that 
his night's rest had been spoiled by the arrival 
of telegrams at all hours. 

We were halfway through dinner when a 
marine officer from St. Petersburg joined us. 
He had been out to Vladivostok with 
M. Iswolsky's party and was on his return 
journey, when he received orders to stop at 
Blagovestchensk and superintend the shipping 
of soldiers for Taku. All were merry as could 

247 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

be, and Prince D began chaffing the ladies 

present on their admiration — as he called it — 
of the Chinese officials. He put up his hand 
and made a sign of cutting off his head. 

" I don't understand Russian," I said. " Pray 
what is all this fun about?" 

" There is a very handsome Chinaman," said 

Prince D , turning to me and speaking in 

English, " who often comes to see General 
Gribsky on political business, and the ladies 
here admire him so much that I think it high 
time his head was off." 

Here all the ladies protested in a chorus, but 
to no purpose. 

The next morning, when Prince D called 

on us at our hotel, he told us that before retir- 
ing to rest on the previous night he had received 
a document drawn up with all formality and 
sealed with the Governor's seal, to the effect 
that not a single Chinese head was to be cut 
off. 

" I was not going to be done by the ladies in 
this manner," he said. " I sent one of my 
sailors to a barber's shop for a Chinese pigtail 

248 



THE SILVER GENERAL 

— the largest he could find. When it came I 
had it done up in a parcel and sent a servant 
with it to Mademoiselle Gribsky. " Put it in the 
young lady's hand yourself," I said, " but do 
not betray the sender." 

We all three laughed heartily over the joke, 
and wondered what the sequel would be. In 
the afternoon Mademoiselle Gribsky came down 
to the steamer to see us off. 

" Oh ! " she said, " I had such a fright this 
morning. A parcel was put into my hand by a 
man I had never seen before, and he left me 
without a word of explanation. I found no 
writing on it, and felt sure it contained some 
explosive, and had been sent by the Boxers." 

"Did you open it?" we asked eagerly, 

11 Yes," she said, " I did muster courage at 
last, and what do you think I found ? — A 
horrible Chinese pigtail ! " 

" You don't seem to appreciate your present," 
I said. " Give it me for my museum in 
London." 

" No, indeed ! I shall keep it for ever ! " 
was the laughing reply. 

249 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

I have often wondered since whether that 
handsome Chinaman escaped with his life. 

As we were steaming down the Amur I took 
the photograph and wrote on the back, 
" Governor of A'igun ) Chinese town on the 
Amur." 

Today there is no Ai'gun, and no Governor ! 



250 



Chapter XVIII 

AIGUN 

"QO you will write an account of your 

*^ journey," said Prince D just as we 

were starting for Khabarovsk. "Well, if you 
take my advice, you will believe nothing that 
is not confirmed in St. Petersburg, otherwise 
your book will be full of travellers' mistakes. 
One Siberian traveller describes the delightful 
shade afforded by — a plant which never grows 
more than a foot above the ground ! Another 
tells us that a certain kind of dog peculiar to 
some parts is called Sobaka — blissfully ignorant 
of the fact that this word is not the name of a 
special breed, but the ordinary equivalent for 
the English word " dog." 

Just as our steamer was starting, the manager 
of the Grand Hotel came down to the wharf 

251 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

with a letter which he had written to his little 
daughters in Yokohama. 

" I shall be so grateful, ladies," he said with 
tears in his eyes, " if you can find time to go 
and see the children. They are in a convent 
school on the Bluff. Their mother has just 
taken the youngest there, and the eldest I have 
not seen for seven years. The separation is 
becoming unbearable, but what can I do ? 
Blagovestchensk is no place for little girls. 
The climate, and the tone of the place — all is 
against them." 

We took the letter and promised to do our 
best. 

The steamer on which we now travelled was 
certainly the finest we had yet seen. There 
was a pleasant dining saloon with cabins open- 
ing into it on both sides, and another saloon at 
one end, with plenty of comfortable easy chairs 
and a piano. 

As the people began to come on board we 
noticed the faces of many passengers who had 
travelled with us as far as Stretinsk, and then 
disappeared from our view. The actor with 

252 



AIGUN 

short curls was there also, and the brown-coated 
priest with long ones. 

" Where have all these people come from ? ' 
I asked, as the actor came up smiling. 

" They arrived on the Ural yesterday morn- 
ing," replied the actor. " I also came on the 
Ural ; we had just arrived when you saw me in 
the office yesterday. We started from Stretinsk 
two days and a half before you, and got here 
three days later. Do you not remember seeing 
us walking on the river side when the Ural was 
stuck on a sandbank ? " 

One and another now came up, all smiles 
as they recognized the English ladies. 

" You have become famous," said one. 

"So you are going to the island of Sakhalin !" 
said another. 

"I am glad you like Siberia," said a third. 
Then, seeing us look perplexed, they told us 
that an article about us had been published in 
the Amur Gazette the day before. One gentle- 
man fetched his copy and translated part of it 
to us. We kept it as a memento ; but it was 
not till October, four months later, that we got 

253 



A KIBBON OF IRON 

it translated. The translation is literal, and 
runs as follows : — 

"Two English ladies, a mother sixty years 
old, with her young daughter, travel on board a 
steamer leaving Blagovestchensk. Both passen- 
gers have accomplished a long journey across 
Russia for instructions sake only, having visited 
Tashkent and the Caucasus, and being now on 
their way to the island of Sakhalin, wishing 
evidently to have the personal experience and 
feel the charms of our ways of transportation. 

11 Leaving Sakhalin they will probably visit 
Vladivostok, and then proceed to England, thus 
finishing their journey around the old world. 
Having crossed a good part of Siberia the ladies 
are surprised at our civilization and culture, and 
say that they never expected to meet with such 
good order in this distant borderland. 

" But two years ago they had read in a book that 
bears were freely walking in the streets of Moscow. 

"In reply to the inquisitiveness of some of 
their fellow passengers, who wished to ascertain 
whether the motive of their journey was the 
collection of ethnographical materials regarding 

254 



AIGUN 

the Russians, the Miss stated modestly that her 
mother was taking a few notes for her editor 
in London." 

It was too hot to be on deck, but we would 
not go in till we were fairly off, as we were 
anxious to get a good view of Sakhalin, a 
Manchurian village situated exactly opposite 
Blagovestchensk, on the river bank. From this 
village begins the Chinese road that passes 
through the valley of Ai'gun, and then leaving 
the river, branches off into the interior of 
Manchuria in the direction of Tsitsikar. 

Twenty versts farther on we passed Ai'gun. 
The river was much wider at this point, and our 
steamer kept well to mid-stream to avoid dan- 
gerous sandbanks, so that our view of the place 
was a distant one. Still we could make out the 
Chinese roofs. We saw here and there a roof 
raised as it were on four posts above the lower 
part of a dwelling, and its corners curled up 
outwards just as one sees them in Chinese 
pictures. There was not a sign of life stir- 
ring as we passed, and we laughed to think of 
all the rumours we had heard, and felt very 

255 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

glad we had not allowed ourselves to be 
frightened into staying at Blagovestchensk. 

The latest and most authentic description of 
Aigun that has been published is as follows * : — 

" The town has a citadel which is the residence 
of a Chinese governor ; the admiralty of a 
Chinese flotilla is also to be found here. The 
houses (phanzas) are of one story ; they are 
small, and built either of brick or of clay, with 
thatched roofs. There are upwards of fifteen 
thousand inhabitants, some of whom are Mussul- 
men, these have a mosque and a school of their 
own. The chief commercial products are wheat, 
mustard, tobacco and oil." 

We had expected this to be the hottest part of 
our journey, but it was, on the contrary, delight- 
fully cool and fresh, for we had no sooner 
passed Aigun than there was a violent thunder- 
storm with pouring rain. At night, when we lay 
at anchor, swarms of tiny flies began to flutter 
round us. They had transparent white wings 
and pale green bodies, so small that when 
they were flying one could only see their wings, 

1 Guide to Great Siberian Railway. 
256 




3 



r/1 



AIGUN 

and when we put out our hands to ward them 
off, it was like brushing away so much chaff. 

Firs and larches still continued to cover the 
hillsides, and there was very little alteration in 
the scenery, though we descried several new 
kinds of flowers. There was one that looked 
like a peony ; it had large white petals fringed 
with pink, and grew in quantities close to the 
water's edge. At some of the landing stages, 
peasants brought bunches on board for sale. A 
Russian lady, seeing that I was interested in 
them, purchased a lovely bouquet and begged 
my acceptance of it. 

This was only one of the many graceful acts 
of courtesy which the presence of foreign ladies 
called forth, and it is impossible to relate half the 
little kindnesses of which we were the recipients 
during that long Siberian journey. I remember 
one lady bringing to our cabin a plate of pre- 
served pineapple ; she had bought it for us at 
the buffet, thinking that we might not know 
how to ask for such a delicacy in Russian. I 
need hardly add that her surmise was correct. 
On another occasion an officer, at a spot where 

257 R 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

fresh caviar was obtainable, ordered a dish to be 
set before us, and absolutely refused to let us 
pay for it. 

Most of the first-class passengers were officers 
in white uniform with gold buttons. There was 
also a gaily dressed lady, whose home was at 
Khabarovsk. She told us that she knew St. 
Petersburg, Moscow, and many other fine cities, 
but that, for her part, she preferred Khabarovsk 
to them all. Life there, she said, was so 
thoroughly gay. 

"What is the chief amusement there?" I 
asked. 

"Dancing," she replied. "We have any 
number of balls, and there are always plenty 
of partners." 

" Yes," put in the actor, who was our inter- 
preter, " there are more men than women, for 
the place is nothing but a garrison full of 
officers. There is certainly plenty of dancing, 
but nothing else." 

His tone was sarcastic. 

" You are very brave to take this journey," 
he said to me. "Nansen had a far better time 

258 



AIGUN 

of it, I assure you. As for me, I have an en- 
gagement in an opera at Vladivostok, but I 
shall need quite two days' rest before I can 
sing." 

I thought two days a very moderate time for 
rest after such a five weeks' journey. 

" I have just been reading the Russian trans- 
lation of an English book," he continued. " I 
can't remember the name, but it is about a 
young abbot who was very religious. He fell 
in love with a beautiful young girl, and his love 
for her conflicted with his religion." 

" Was the girl called < Glory ' ? " I asked. 

" Yes," he replied. " It is a fine tale and 
cleverly written, but the abbot was not quite 
right in the head, and his sentiments, on which 
the whole story turns, were those of a sick 
brain, not a healthy one. But all novels are 
like that nowaday," he added. " There is 
something abnormal and unhealthy in them 
all, which lessens the value of these so-called 
'psychological studies.' " 

Another passenger was a young student from 
a commercial college in Moscow. He was on 

259 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

his way home to Vladivostok for the summer 
holidays. 

" As it takes me ten weeks there and back," 
he said, " I can only go home once in three 
years ; even now there is a railway. I shall only 
get a month with my people." 

This youth spoke French well. He often 
translated for our benefit the conversations of 
the officers at the other end of the table. 

" They are talking about the Boxers," he said 
one day. "According to the Blagovestchensk 
journals, the present trouble with China seems 
to have arisen through certain Manchurians 
having found some bones buried near the un- 
finished railway line. They at once flew into a 
rage, and declared that a Manchu had been 
murdered. They persisted in attributing the 
death of their supposed brother to Russian 
cruelty, and so the rebellion began. The Rus- 
sian engineers explained to the natives that 
the bones found were not human at all, but 
those of a bear. In order to convince the 
Manchus of their folly, they had a bear killed 
and skinned. Then they laid its bones beside 

260 



AIGUN 

the ones in question, but still some were not 
convinced." 

We were three days and three nights travel- 
ling from Blagovestchensk to Khabarovsk. On 
the third day we passed the village Blagosla- 
venny ; it is not a Russian, but a Corean village. 
In the year 1871 some Corean emigrants settled 
there ; they had come from the Ussuri district, 
and, while they became members of the ortho- 
dox Church, retained their own language, their 
own way of life, and their own system of agri- 
culture. 

The appearance of this village is different 
from that of the Russian ones. Its houses are 
small — phanzas — all separated from one another 
by little plots of cultivated ground. Between 
the trees are narrow roadways. The houses are 
built with plaited branches of trees, and covered 
over inside and out with clay. Each phanza 
is surrounded by a little courtyard and out- 
houses. Everything is kept beautifully clean 
and in the best of order. The Coreans culti- 
vate their fields with great care, and are most 
successful with all kinds of vegetables. Amongst 

261 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

the cereals they cultivate are millet, wheat, oats 
and maize. Owing to their great industry and 
thrift these people make enough money to live 
in comparative comfort, though the land allotted 
to them is not extensive. 

The village of Mokhanko, which we passed a 
few hours later, is just opposite the spot where 
the river Sungari joins the Amur. Here there 
are numerous islands formed by collections of 
alluvial soil, thrown up where the waters meet. 
Some of them are bare, others are covered with 
vegetation. Instead of extending in the direc- 
tion of the current, as one would expect, they 
spread across the river. This phenomenon is 
attributed to the fact that the waters of the 
Sungari flow with greater force than those of 
the Amur. The Manchus consider the Sungari 
to be the largest branch of the Amur ; in fact, 
the Sungari has more water than the Amur, and 
steamers travelling on it are not obliged to 
anchor at night, which means a great economy 
of time. The water of the Sungari looks muddy. 
This is owing to infinitesimal particles of clay 
that are mixed up with it. For some distance 

262 



AIGUN 

the two currents run side by side, but the Amur 
eventually loses its clearness and becomes muddy 
like its companion. 

No less than sixty-three kinds of fish have 
been found in the Amur, and there are probably 
many more. Carp and salmon are there in such 
abundance, that supplying the markets with 
them bids fair to become an important industry 
at no very distant date. One kind of salmon, salmo 
proteus, comes down the river in such shoals 
that no less than three thousand may be caught 
at a time. At Nikolaevsk upwards of a hundred 
and ninety-three thousand puds of a salmon 
called "keta" — salmo lagocephalus — are salted 
annually. It is for local markets only that 
they are so prepared at present. In addition to 
these, four million are dried in the sun, and five 
hundred and forty thousand are prepared as 
dogs' food. 



263 



Chapter XIX 

KHABAROVSK— THE USSURI 
RAILWAY 

¥T was towards the close of the seventeenth 
■ century that the Amur province began to 
figure in the annals of Russian history. In the 
year 1643 a man named Basil Poi'arkof was sent 
from Yakutsk with a company of one hundred 
and thirty Cossacks to explore its rivers. He 
travelled by boat as far as the mouth of the Amur, 
(having reached it by the Zeia), and returned 
to Yakutsk three years later without having 
left any trace of his expedition behind him. 

A second expedition was set on foot in 1649 
under Erothee Khabarof, who passed down the 
Amur and laid waste all the Daurian villages 
that lay in his way. The natives appealed to 
the Manchus for help, and this was the begin- 
ning of a long struggle between Russia and China 
for the possession of the Amur Province. 

264 



KHABAROVSK — USSURI RAILWAY 

I have already spoken of the bravery of the 
Cossacks. It was through their bravery, per- 
severance, and self-sacrifice that Russia was en- 
abled finally to annex the Amur. They were 
the first emigrants, and the difficulties they had 
to encounter were almost insurmountable. The 
country was unknown to them, the forests were 
impenetrable, and the distances extreme. Both 
men and domestic animals fell victims to various 
maladies, and there was a terrible mortality 
among their children. Sometimes the river 
flooded its banks and destroyed the houses they 
had planted there with so mu ch difficulty. ' ' Many 
a brave Cossack died without a murmur," says a 
Russian writer. " History has passed them over 
in silence, poets have not sung their fame, but 
Russia knows to whom her thanks are due." 

It was Count Moravioff Amoursky who im- 
mortalized the name of Khabarof by giving the 
name of that hardy Cossack to a military station 
which he established in the year 1858. 

Khabarovsk is now a rapidly growing town 
perched on undulating hills that slope down to 
the water s edge just where the Amur is joined 

265 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

to the Ussuri. In the year 1893 its name, for 
some reason or other, was changed to Khaba- 
rovsk, and that is the name it goes by today. 
It is now the administrative centre of the Mari- 
time Province, and the Governor-General resides 
there. The town is so essentially military in its 
character that it can hardly be called anything 
else but a garrison. There is a legend to the 
effect that its name ought by rights to be " The 
Town of the Seventeen Generals," for, says the 
legend, " since a Governor-General first settled 
there with his retinue — no one knows why — 
the place has never been of use to any one but 
Governor -Generals, and these have succeeded 
one another in quick succession." I do not my- 
self think that there have been quite so many 
as seventeen, but legends always exaggerate. 

The chief street is called "Moravioff Amour- 
sky," in memory of its founder, and there is 
also a monument in his honour which stands on 
the steep wooded cliff overlooking the river, 
and can be seen for a great distance. 

One side of the cliff is bare and has huge 
boulders on its ledges. There is a sad story 

266 



KHABAROVSK — USSURI RAILWAY 

told in connection with one of them. A young 
lady, who was on a visit to some friends living 
near the cliff, put on her hat one afternoon 
and ran out to take a little stroll, saying, " I 
shall be back in half an hour." Her friends 
never saw her again alive, for a few minutes 
later a boulder, which must have been getting 
gradually loose for some time, rolled down the 
side of the cliff and crushed her to death. We 
heard about it from the Moscow student who 
had known the young lady intimately. 

We had been told that there were no hotels 
in Khabarovsk, so we obtained permission from 
the agents to spend the night on the steamer 
that had brought us, and leaving our baggage 
in the cabin, we started off to see the Museum. 

There were very few droshkies, and we had 
to walk up a steep hill before we could get 
one. Close to the landing-stage is a crescent of 
Chinese booths. Looking at the backs of them 
from the steamer we had wondered whatever 
those dilapidated wooden sheds could be ; but 
when we reached the inner side of the crescent 
the sight was extremely picturesque. Every 

267 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

booth was well stocked with vegetables and 
other agricultural products, and a crowd of 
Manchus, all in bright blue, as I have described 
them elsewhere, stood eagerly waiting to sell 
their wares. These people, we found, all lived 
together in their own part of the town, where 
they were quite at home, and even had a Chinese 
temple to worship in. I was beginning now to 
get accustomed to the sight of their prominent 
cheek-bones and yellow skin, and my antipathy 
to them was not so strong as it had been. 

The Museum door was locked, but we hunted 
up the old man who had charge of it and got 
him to show us round. Here we found a great 
deal to interest us, in spite of the fact that some 
of its rarest treasures had been sent to the Paris 
Exhibition. There were models of the various 
kinds of houses in which the different tribes of 
the Amur country pass their lives. Figures re- 
presenting the men and women of each tribe 
were also there, with specimens of the food 
they live on and everything striking about 
them that could possibly be represented. 

A large part of the Museum was set apart 

268 



KHABAROVSK — USSURI RAILWAY 

for similar models of Chinese and their houses, 
temples and gods, and even the Japanese were 
not forgotten. One of the Chinese articles of 
food was a kind of seaweed, in large bundles, of 
which the Celestials are very fond. Downstairs 
was a room devoted to stuffed seals of every 
kind and description, mostly from the island of 
Sakhalin and Kamschatka. The eye of the seal 
is known to resemble that of human beings, but 
I was never so much struck with this fact as on 
the present occasion. With the exception of 
the Government building, all the houses of 
Khabarovsk are of wood, and while there is 
one stone church there are two built of wood. 

The present Governor-General, whose name 
has so often appeared in our papers of late, 
though hospitably inclined, is a bachelor, and 
his dinner parties are naturally less charming 
in the absence of the fair sex. The host is of a 
silent disposition they tell me, and after showing 
his hospitality by pointing to a dish and saying 
" Eat ! — eat ! " relapses into silence. 

Returning to the wharf before dark we found 
a crowd of gaily dressed ladies and gentlemen 

269 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

who had come down to see their friends off. 
We made our way through them and went on 
board. But when we opened our cabin door 
there was no baggage to be seen ! Our feelings 
were not pleasant. Very soon, however, con- 
sternation was turned to smiles, for we dis- 
covered that we were on another steamer, the 
very counterpart of our own. We had turned 
to retrace our steps when a new thought crossed 
our minds : " Perhaps ours had returned to 
Blagovestchensk with all our things on board ! " 

I made a rush for the agent's office. Alas ! 
he could only speak Russian ; but he soon 
understood our position, and pointing down 
the river, showed us our steamer safely 
anchored, and giving no signs of preparation 
for a return journey. The one we had mis- 
taken for it was to start in half an hour for 
Blagovestchensk, after which ours was to re- 
turn to the wharf, and we should be able to 
go on board for the night. 

We fetched two chairs out of the office and 
sat down to contemplate the tender farewells 
that were taking place. Champagne was plenti- 

270 



KHABAROVSK— USSURI RAILWAY 

ful it seems on board, for the departing friends 
drank freely to the health of those they were 
leaving behind. Most of the people were bound 
for St. Petersburg, and this parting was no light 
matter. But for the champagne I fancy there 
would have been more tears visible. 

Inside the low roof above our heads were 
several swallows' nests. Each nest was full of 
young birds which put their little heads over 
the side and twittered unceasingly while the 
parent birds fluttered round and fed them. The 
confidence of these little creatures was wonder- 
ful to see. The agent kept his eye on them and 
they seemed to know that they were under his 
protection. If an English cat had been there 
she would have had them all at a spring. 

At last the steamer for Blagovestchensk 
moved slowly away, and handkerchiefs were 
waved furiously. Then our steamer came 
alongside, and we went on board to find our 
baggage safe, and everything just as we had 
left it. We spent the rest of the evening walk- 
ing on the deck and listening to the band that 
was playing in the public gardens. 

271 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

All at once a swarm of flies came across from 
the wharf and covered the deck. They were 
the white kind I have already referred to with 
wings like chaff. It was just as if a sack- 
ful of chaff had been scattered over us. I had 
to put a handerchief to my face to prevent 
them from fluttering into my mouth and eyes. 

The flies were followed by a sharp thunder- 
storm and heavy rain which drove them into 
the saloon. While we were at supper they flew 
into the candles on the table, and getting burnt, 
fell in heaps on the cloth. We had to move all 
the candles to one end to prevent their falling 
into the food we were eating. 

We were just retiring to rest, the only pas- 
sengers left, when a young man in ship's 
uniform came to tell us that we must be sure 
to get up at 3 a.m. if we stayed on board, as we 
should otherwise be taken back to Blagoves- 
tchensk. The steamer was to start punctually at 
4 a.m. He advised lis strongly to go at once to 
an hotel, and promised to get us a droshky while 
we packed our things. When we heard that 
there really was an hotel to which we could go, 

272 



KHABAROVSK — USSURI RAILWAY 

we agreed to his proposal, and had just finished 
strapping up our rugs when the young man 
returned bringing with him one of the officers 
who had travelled with us. With some diffi- 
culty they made us understand that after all 
we could stay on the steamer if we preferred 
it. The first alarm had been a false one. They 
were not leaving till 6 a.m. Once more we 
unpacked for the night, for the idea of a 
droshky drive in that pelting rain was any- 
thing but agreeable. 

Our train was to start for Vladivostok at 
7 a.m., and it was a long drive to the station. I 
shall never forget the state of the roads : it was 
like driving over ploughed fields after rain. 

At the station we recognized many familiar 
faces, amongst which were those of the brown- 
coated priest, the Moscow student and the 
actor. When people have been travelling 
together for weeks and weeks they meet more 
or less as old friends even if they have never 
exchanged a word. 

As we walked up and down the platform we 
were struck with the great number of national- 

273 s 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

ities represented on it. Coreans dressed all in 
white with strange white headdresses, that 
made a striking contrast to their jet-black hair 
and dark yellow skins, were squatting on the 
ground in rows. Servian gipsies were walking 
about amongst the crowd and telling fortunes ; 
Chinese and Japs were everywhere. One well- 
dressed Chinese lady stood quietly by the ticket 
office while her husband got the tickets. How 
she could balance herself on her tiny feet was 
a mystery. 

There was a Circassian family from Tiflis all 
very good looking. The beautiful mother wore 
her thick black hair down her back in long 
natural curls, while on her head was a velvet 
cap, covered with a lace handkerchief which 
floated over her shoulders. Her handsome son- 
in-law was a priest. He had a bush of curly 
black hair and wore a long grey coat with loose 
sleeves. It was lined with bright purple silk. 

The express train by which we travelled to 
Vladivostok was not so luxurious as the " train 
de luxe " by which we had travelled to Omsk. 
It was like an ordinary post train with a rough 

274 



KHABAROVSK — USSURI RAILWAY 

kind of dining car attached. At one end of the 
dining car was a buffet behind which stood two 
Jap boys always alert for orders. Down the 
middle ran a long table which was occupied 
half the time by passengers drinking beer. 

I observed that the train seemed to be 
managed by soldiers rather than by the usual 
railway men, and that the stations were many of 
them quite military in appearance ; whereupon 
I was told that this was because in time of war 
the Ussuri railway would become a military one, 
and it was necessary that the soldiers should 
have some practice in the management of it. 
Both at Khabarovsk and at Viasemska stations 
there were barracks and a railway battalion. 

The country through which we now passed 
was very beautiful. There were hills and 
valleys and meadows all following one another 
in quick succession. The grass in the meadows 
was high, and amongst it were many kinds of 
lovely flowers that we had never seen growing 
wild before. 

We stayed in the dining car till all the 
passengers except ourselves had had their lunch 

275 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

and gone back to their respective carriages. 
Then we drew our chairs close to one of the 
windows and passed several delightful hours 
feasting our eyes on the scenery and looking 
out for all the new kinds of flowers that were 
to be seen. We got quite excited over it as we 
pointed out each fresh blossom to one another. 
There was the purple, and the white iris, such as 
we afterwards saw to greater perfection in Japan ; 
there were big yellow, red, and white lilies such 
as grow in our gardens at home, and there was 
a brilliant red flower, with clusters of blossom 
not unlike our common geranium. Some one 
got out and picked a bunch of them at one of 
the stations, and as they were placed in a vase 
on the buffet table we were able to examine 
them more closely ; their petals were firmer 
than those of the geranium, and more waxlike. 

Later in the afternoon, when we were refresh- 
ing ourselves with coffee served in glasses, the 
first we had tasted for nearly a week, we made 
the acquaintance of a Russian officer who spoke 
English. He turned out to be a military agent. 

Colonel D- was travelling with his adjutant, 

276 



KHABAROVSK— USSURI RAILWAY 

Lieutenant K , and a Chinese servant. They 

had come by land from Port Arthur to Charbin 
in Manchuria, where they had crossed the un- 
finished railway and then proceeded by steamer 
down the Sungari to Khabarovsk. 

" All was perfectly quiet," said the Colonel, 
" when we left Port Arthur, and we preceded 
the rebellion in each town by a few hours. At 
Mukden there was not the faintest indication of 
the approaching trouble, but at the very next 
town we stopped at, news reached us by telegram 
that Mukden was in arms." 

" Things are looking very grave at Pekin," he 
continued, " and if I may be allowed to criticize 
the action of the English, French and Germans 
in the matter, I would say that it is nothing 
short of impertinence to send a small handful of 
men to set things right in the very heart of a 
country so powerful in men and arms as China ! 
" I repeat it," he cried, getting quite excited. 
" It is impertinence, and the Chinese will look 
upon it as such and act accordingly." 

That night we were, for the first time, 
attacked by mosquitoes. They were merciless. 

277 



Chapter XX 

KHILKOVO— VLADIVOSTOK 

^\UR train was due at Vladivostok at 1 p.m. 
^^ on the day following that on which we 
had left Khabarovsk, and at 12.30 we caught 
sight of the waters of the Amur Gulf, an arm 
of the Bay of Peter the Great. The train ran 
close to the waters edge and a delicious sea 
breeze blew in upon us. Then came the last 
station we had to pass — Khilkovo. I need 
hardly say that it had a special interest for us 
as having received its name in honour of our 
kind friend Prince Hilkoff, the Minister of 
Ways and Communications. It was at this 
spot that the people of Vladivostok assembled 
to bid " God-speed " to their beloved Czarowich, 
the present Emperor, when in May, 1891, he 
started on his journey across Siberia. 

We now found ourselves speeding through 

278 



KHILKOVO — VLADIVOSTOK 

the very centre of Vladivostok. Hills sprinkled 
with houses rose on all sides of us. There is 
only one street of any length in the place and 
this we crossed over before reaching the station, 
which is situated on the eastern side of the 
beautiful bay called "The Bay of the Golden 
Horn." The latitude of Vladivostok is only a 
quarter of a degree further north than that 
of Florence and Nice, nevertheless it is ice- 
bound during several months of the year, and 
an ice-breaker has to be used in order to bring 
ships into the harbour. Our first view of the 
town was pleasing. Its semi-European houses 
seemed to spring up in the most unexpected 
places, while the bay of the Golden Horn curled 
itself round the undulating hills, and pretty 
boats on the water added life to the scene. This 
" Paris of Siberia," as it has been called, we 
found in a state of unusual stir and excitement, 
owing to the mobilization of its troops, not — as 
rumour had it — in preparation for war with 
China, but for the quieting of a rebellion which 
the Chinese government was itself unable to 
quell. Officers in full uniform were driving 

279 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

about in all directions and there was not a 
droshky to be had. Happily for us we had 
fallen into good hands. One new friend Colonel 

D ordered his Chinamen to look after our 

baggage, and sent some one else in search of a 
droshky. 

In the meantime we sat in the waiting room 
and watched our fellow passengers dispersing on 
foot to their new homes, having finished at last 
their five weeks' journey. The actor was fat, and 
averse to walking ; I felt quite sorry for him. 
As for the Moscow student, he was the picture 
of happiness, surrounded by father and mother 
and younger brothers and sisters. They were 
all brought up and introduced to us, whereupon 
we shook hands and agreed to meet again. 
Besides, as the young man was, like ourselves, 
to make the return journey in a few weeks' 
time, there seemed every probability that we 
might again be travelling companions. 

The search for droshkies proved successful 
at last, and the faithful Chinaman packed our 
luggage into one of them. We had just got in 
ourselves and were commenting on the extreme 

280 



KHILKOVO— VLADIVOSTOK 

youthfulness of the man on the box, who could 
not have been more than twelve years old, when 
the Colonel came up and insisted on our taking 
the other droshky. 

" I will not trust you to that little boy," he 
said, " especially as you cannot speak the 
language." 

The thought of being turned over at an angle 
of one of those hills, and not being able to make 
strong language understood, was too much for 
us. We got out meekly and did as we were told. 
At last we were off. I shall never forget that 
first drive in Vladivostok. It was nothing 
but a series of ups and downs and twists and 
turns. We blessed the Colonel for not trusting 
us to the little boy. 

The manager of the Moscow came out to 
meet us with a telegram, which we had sent 
him from Khabarovsk, in his hand. I took it 
from him and nodded when I saw our name 
upon it. We had learned by this time to talk 
as easily by action and dumb show as people do 
who have been deprived of speech from their 
birth. If we wanted a key for our door we had 

281 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

only to imitate the action of turning a key, and 
so on. Gradually and almost unconsciously we 
had picked up the Russian for a few such words 
as were the most useful and at the same time 
the most difficult to describe by action. 

We were shown into two fairly large rooms 
opening one into the other. The hotel stood on 
the side of a very steep road running up the hill 
from the chief street which skirted the water, 
and as our rooms were on the ground floor we 
had a good view of the bay. 

All the work in the hotel was done by China- 
men. They moved about very quietly, and 
waited on us with a stately deference which 
pleased us much, though just at first they 
could not conceal their astonishment when 
they found us unable to speak either Russian 
or Chinese. 

Early the next morning I started out to post 
our letters, and walked most of the way, not 
being able to find a droshky. Chinamen literally 
lined the streets on both sides. They wore 
their loose blue cotton jackets open in front, 
and exposed so much of their yellow chests 

282 



KHILKOVO — VLADIVOSTOK 

to view that they gave one the idea of people 
reduced to the last extremity from heat 
and suffocation. The military element had 
practically disappeared, and, as a lady residing 
there told me afterwards, Vladivostok was not 
itself as I saw it. 

" Now that all our gay officers are gone," she 
added, "a stranger might well think that the 
town was in the hands of the Chinese." 

At the post office I found a woman who spoke 
French. She informed me that every steamer 
that came into the bay was chartered to take 
troops to Taku, and that there was no knowing 
when our letters would go. 

After lunch Colonel D came to see us, 

also the Moscow student and his father. All 
were most kind, but the news they brought was 
not favourable. 

"You cannot get a steamer to take you to 
Japan for ten days or even longer," they said. 

We knew well that a week longer in 
Vladivostok meant a week less in Japan, so 
the prospect of such a delay was extremely 
aggravating. 

283 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

"I am as anxious as you are to get to Japan," 
said the Colonel; "my people are there and I 
wish to see them before I join my regiment at 
Taku. If I find even a cargo boat that will take 
me I shall go." 

" If you do find a cargo boat tell us," I cried, 
" for we will come too." 

" Yes," said my mother. " We will come with 
you, and sleep on deck if there are no cabins." 

The Colonel looked surprised, but he promised 
to do his best. 

The Governor's house was only a few steps 
from the hotel, and that of the Mayor 
just opposite. When calling on Madame 
Tchitchagoff, the Governor's wife, we remarked 
a business-like green baize table in the centre 
of her elegant drawing room. 

"That table does not belong here," said our 
hostess, following the direction of our eyes. " It 
was brought in this morning for my committee 
meeting. I have formed a committee of ladies 
to help me to take care of the wives and 
children of our soldiers who are being so hur- 
riedly taken to China," and then she went on 

284 



KHILKOVO— VLADIVOSTOK 

to tell us how, one after another the men 
kept coming to her with anxious faces to beg 
her to befriend the dear ones they were leav- 
ing. 

" I am as busy as my husband," she added 
smiling. " While he looks after the men and 
sends them to China I look after the women 
and children. You must come and lunch with 
me to morrow, and then you will meet my 
husband." 

That was an interesting lunch party, and 
one we shall never forget. I found myself 
sitting next to a closely-shaven military man 
of remarkably fine appearance ; this was the 
Governor, General Tchitchagoff, resplendent in 
full uniform. He chatted gaily in French, and 
kept filling my plate with every delicacy, and 
pouring out wines which he never could have 
expected me to drink. I found wood straw- 
berries, pineapple, and bananas all on my plate 
at once when we got to the dessert. 

Opposite me sat Admiral A who was on 

his way to take command of the Russian forces 
at Taku. He talked little and was anxious to 

285 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

be off 5 so we hurried through the meal on his 
account. A man of war was waiting in the bay- 
ready to start the moment he came on board, 
and General Tchitchagoff was to take him out 
in his own launch. Champagne was drunk in 
his honour, and every one wished him success in 
his undertaking. 

Ten minutes before they started General L 

was announced. He had just arrived from 
Khabarovsk, and was going on at once with 
Admiral A- . 

Two more glasses of champagne were brought. 
We were now sitting in the verandah overlook- 
ing the bay, and the ship that was to take 
the generals lay before our eyes. General 
Tchitchagoff carried the newcomer off to a 
quiet corner where they talked earnestly for 
a few minutes ; afterwards they drank each 
other's health and rejoined us. 

Every one tried to be gay those last moments, 
but there was an undercurrent of sadness felt 
by all. Those veteran warriors knew what 
war meant, and we English knew also — only 
too well. 

286 



KHILKOVO— VLADIVOSTOK 

11 So you have actually come through Siberia," 

said General L looking at us with interest ; 

" right through Siberia ! You are very brave ! " 

Then, as we rose to go, he shook hands 
heartily with all present except the Governor's 
wife, whose hand he gallantly kissed. In the 
meantime General Tchitchagoff, who had 
stepped into the garden, returned with a 
lovely rose and presented it to my mother. 
It was the first rose that had crossed our path 
in Siberia. 

" I will keep it," said my mother, " in memory 
of the brave generals I have met today." 

Madame Tchitchagoff brought out some field 
glasses, and we watched the launch with the 
three generals on board, as it made its way to 
the man of war. Then the great ship moved 
slowly away to join the allies at Taku. 

" The soldiers are delighted to go," said one of 
the ladies. 

" How is it men are so ready to face death ? " 
I said, almost thinking aloud. 

"On ne meurt qu'une fois," replied Madame 
Tchitchagoff. 

287 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Afterwards, as we were walking in their lovely- 
garden, Mademoiselle Tchitchagoff described how, 
with her mother and sisters, she also had come 
through Siberia. 

" We travelled in winter," she said. " It was 
delightful to skim over thousands of miles of 
untrodden snow, in a comfortable sledge, with 
the clear frosty air blowing in your face, and 
warm furs ail round you. 

" One of my sisters caught cold on the way," 
she continued, " and as we could not keep her in 
a warm room we made her tuck her head under 
the cover till she got better. We took with us 
a cook, a dressmaker, and a maid, besides other 
attendants. At Irkutsk they did their best to 
make us comfortable by putting us all into 
one immense room for the night." (Here she 
laughed heartily at the remembrance.) " The 
windows and doors were draped with the 
grandest of curtains," she went on to say, " but 
it never entered the landlord's head that we 
should have preferred separate rooms, however 
simple, to all that magnificence. As it was, we 
settled down with the help of a few screens, and 

288 



KHILKOVO— VLADIVOSTOK 

left a corner to the cook, so that she was 
able to prepare our supper in comparative 
peace." 

When Mademoiselle Tchitchagoff had finished, I 
told her about our journey, and the two accounts 
sounded so different that it was hard to believe 
that we had both travelled by one and the 
same route. A journey by sledge in winter 
is naturally very different from one by train 
in summer. Yet as we compared notes we 
came to the conclusion that the one was as 
pleasant and as enjoyable as the other. 

Later on in the afternoon we called on the 
Mayor. His wife was an Englishwoman. She 
welcomed us kindly, and after we had chatted 
for a few minutes the Mayor himself came in. 
After mutual greetings he handed my mother 
a pair of pocket scissors she had left in the 
train at Omsk, thousands of miles away. 

" These are trying times," said Madame 

V ; " nearly all the servants in the town 

are Chinese, and yesterday they all with one 
consent gave notice to leave. Some one spread 
a report that the Russians intended to shut them 

289 t 



A EIBBON OF IRON 

up in a large building, and put lighted kerosine 
underneath. Happily the Governor was able to 
persuade them that the report was false, other- 
wise I don't know what in the world we should 
have done. General Tchitchagoff sent for some 
of the most influential Chinese merchants," she 
continued, "and told them to try their powers 
of persuasion with the lower classes. He also 
told his own servants that they could find no 
safer place than his house, whatever complica- 
tions might arise." 

Another lady to whom I spoke about the 
Chinese servants told me that they were much 
more satisfactory than the Japs or Russians. 

" To begin with," she said, " they are satisfied 
with lower wages, for their way of life is so 
simple ; they have wonderful memories too. If 
you tell a Chinaman to place a chair in any 
particular part of the room he puts it there, 
not only when you give the command, but 
every day and always, till you give him further 
instructions. However," she added, " it is more 
a case of blind obedience than of thoughtful 
service." 

290 



KHILKOVO— VLADIVOSTOK 

The history of Vladivostok dates from 1860. 
On June 20 in that year, a Russian man of 
war called the Manchour, under Lieutenant- 
Captain Chefner, brought into the bay a party 
of soldiers. On the spot where they landed they 
built themselves barracks, and the place became 
a military station. In 1861 the stone of the 
first church was laid, and in 1865 Vladivostok 
was declared a free port. 

A Hamburg firm has a large store in the 
chief street — " a place where you can buy 
everything." Americans and French also do 
business there, but Russian merchants are 
scarce. 

" We made a great mistake from the first," I 
heard a Russian say, " in not sending merchants 
here when we sent soldiers. Now, other countries 
are stepping in and taking the trade out of our 
hands." 

When talking to the Mayors wife I said, "Do 
you not feel a little nervous now that so many 
of the Russian soldiers are being sent away ? 
Surely the Russian inhabitants would be help- 
less if this swarm of Chinamen rose in arms, 

291 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

Their numbers alone would be overpowering, 
and then too you are so close to China." 
" I have lived here for the last twenty years," 

replied Madame V , " and during the whole 

of that time we have been constantly preparing 
for a siege. Once we went so far as to get in 
special provisions ; but here we are still you 
see! 



292 



Chapter XXI 

ON A CARGO BOAT— FALLEN FROM 
THE SKY— SAPPORO 

L-J OTEL Moscow was full of ipeople waiting 
like ourselves for a steamer to Nagasaki, 
the Japanese port to which, in times of peace, 
there is a regular and frequent service. We 
resigned ourselves to the inevitable. I arranged 
to pay some calls with Mademoiselle Tchitchagoff 
on the following day, accepted an invitation to 
supper with other friends, and sent our clothes 
to the Chinese laundry. In the evening Colonel 

D- looked in. 

" I have come to say ' good-bye,' " he said. 
"I shall probably start either for Taku with 
the soldiers before daybreak, or cross to Otaru 
in the north of Japan by a cargo boat leaving 
at 9.30 a.m." 

293 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

" If you go to Japan take us with you," we 
both cried in a breath. 

The Colonel looked very much surprised this 
time. 

" I fear there will be no accommodation for 
ladies," he replied, "and, besides, you would 
need Japanese money, and there is very little 
to be got here." 

" Please take these," said my mother, handing 
him some rouble notes, " and secure our pas- 
sages on the cargo boat. Once in Japan we 
will find some way of changing our money. 
If you don't come back this evening to say 
that the captain refuses to take us we shall 
consider it settled and be ready to go at 9 a.m. 
tomorrow." 

"I will do my best," said the Colonel, and 
he hurried off. He did not return that evening, 
so we wrote notes of explanation to all our 
friends, promising to let them know when we 
returned. 

At the appointed hour the following morning 
the Colonel appeared. 

" I have taken your passages," he said, " and 

294 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

we shall be a party of six, including my 

Chinamen, for Lieut.-Colonel S of the 

Russian Legation at Tokio is coming too. 
He is impatient to be at his post, and 
asked permission to join our party directly 
he heard we had found a boat. The captain 
is going to let you have his own cabin, so 
you will not have to sleep on deck, and there 
is one other cabin into which we three men 
will squeeze. I have been all over the place 
trying to get Japanese money, but have only 
seventy * yens.' That will not go far among 
so many people." 

We then sent for the manager of the hotel 
and got the Colonel to tell him that he was 
to keep the things we had sent to the laundry 
till our return. 

Just as we were starting, one of the ladies 
in the hotel, who spoke French, met me in 
the hall. 

"I am off to Japan," I said. 

" That cannot be, Mademoiselle," she replied. 
" I have been waiting to go myself for more 
than a week. There is no steamer going, I 

295 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

assure you, and what is more, there will not 
be one for nearly a fortnight," and she swept 
past me with her head in the air. 

"If you don't see me again you will know 
I'm gone," I answered. 

The chief of the police, who was a friend of 

Colonel D 's, took us out to the boat in 

his own steam launch. 

The captain of the Erica was a pleasant 
man and jolly, as most sea captains are. He 
came from Riga and spoke German and English. 

" I hope you will excuse our rough ways," 
he said, shaking hands with my mother. " This 
does not profess to be a passenger ship you 
know." 

We found ourselves the occupants of a com- 
fortable cabin with two berths, over one of which 
was placed a framed motto worked by hand, 

In alien Sturmen, in aller Noth, 

Mog' er dich beschirmen — der treue Gott. 

Hanging from the ceiling was a cage with 
a canary, which sang sweetly. There was truly 
nothing more to be desired but a calm pas- 
sage. 

296 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

The rest of our party came on board just 

before we started, and Lieut. -Colonel S was 

introduced to us. He proved a most agreeable 
addition, for he spoke French and was musical. 
In the evenings, as we sat watching the water 
in the bright moonlight, he and Lieutenant 

K sang Russian duets. He had brought a 

treasure with him in the shape of a Murray s 
Guide to Japan, in English, just the very- 
book we wanted. After lunch the three gentle- 
men disappeared into their cabin and returned, 
one after the other, in civil attire. They chaffed 
one another without mercy, and we too smiled 
at the change that had been so speedily effected. 

We studied the maps and found that we were 
to land in a little bay on the west coast of 
Hokkaido, the island which used to be called 
Yezo. What added romance to the whole was 
the fact that not a soul on board had ever 
been to Japan beforer The captain had never 
seen even the coast of Japan when he received 
orders from head-quarters to fetch a cargo 
of coal from the mines of Otaru and take it 
to Singapore. 

297 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

" I had a narrow escape last night," said 

Colonel D as the shores of Siberia began 

to grow faint in the distance. "I had put my 
baggage on board the steamer for Taku, so 
went out late in the evening to fetch it back. 
I was very tired, for I had been scouring the 
town for Jap money, besides making many 
other necessary arrangements. I lay down on 
the berth that was to have been mine, in- 
tending to take a few minutes' rest, and fell 
fast asleep. At length the sound of military 
music awoke me at 4 a.m. The steamer had 
begun to move. I rushed on deck with my 
baggage and just had time to scramble into 
the last boat that was putting ashore. If I 
had slept a few minutes longer I should have 
been now on my way to Taku with your rouble 
notes in my pocket ! Who knows how long 
it would have been before I could have let you 
know what had happened ! " 

We had left Vladivostok on Friday, July 6, 
and it was 7 p.m. on Sunday evening when 
we arrived at Otaru. As the captain did not 
know the rocks he would not approach land 

298 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

till daylight, so we anchored well outside the 
bay. 

Before we were on deck the next day another 
steamer passed us and anchored inside the bay. 
This turned out to be one of a regular line 
between Hokkaido and Yokohama. After 
breakfast all of us, except my mother, went 
across to her in a little boat rowed by Jap 
boatmen. 

We found the captain to be a genial Scotch- 
man. He said he would be pleased to take 
us to Yokohama, but was not starting till 
Wednesday afternoon. He also told us that 
we must get our tickets at the agent's office 
in Otaru. 

As we had two days and a half at our dis- 
posal we decided to see all we could of the 
northern Japs and their ways ; we began by 
sending a Jap guide ahead to order us a native 
dinner. Then we fetched my mother, and all 
came ashore together, while the Chinese boy 
followed with cloaks and umbrellas. How we 
were to find the ticket office no one knew. 
As we were nearing the landing place we 

299 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

espied a group of Japanese men, amongst whom 
was a man in European clothes. 

"It is an Englishman/' said Colonel D 

" He will be able to help us," and he asked my 
mother and me to go forward and speak to him. 

" Good-morning," I said, approaching him. 
" Do you speak English ? " 

" Rather" replied the gentleman, lifting his 
hat. " I am an American missionary." 

"Would you kindly tell us," said my mother, 
"how far it is to the ticket office?" 

" About two blocks, M'am," replied the mis- 
sionary. 

" I am afraid I don't know how much a 
block is," said my mother. 

" Well, it's about eight squares," was the 
reply. 

"Pray, what is a square?" said my mother, 
and we both looked in the direction of the town. 
It was nothing but a mass of straggling houses. 
There was nothing square about it. 

The three Russian officers who stood by were 
surprised to find us so slow to understand 
our own language ; hearing the missionary reply 

300 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

in English they had thought our difficulties at 
an end. 

" Would you mind coming with us ? " I said 
at last, as the missionary seemed at a loss 
how to explain further. 

"Not at all," he replied. "I shall be glad 
to assist you in any way." 

11 Allow me to introduce these gentlemen," 
I said ; " they are Russian officers on their way 
to Yokohama." 

"Ah! Russian officers," said the missionary, 
shaking hands. " The Japanese were in a great 
state when they saw the Russian flag on your 
ship. You were very wise to come in civil 
dress." 

At the ticket office we had a long interview 
with the Jap agent, who was also in European 
dress, with gold spectacles. This gentleman 
refused to change any Russian money, but 
offered to let us have our tickets if we would 
pay a certain sum on each to him, and the 
rest to the purser on our arrival at Yokohama. 

"That we cannot do," said the Colonel, "we 
have only very little Japanese money with us, 

301 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

and we shall need it all here before starting." 
He was thinking of the Japanese dinner, to 
which we were all looking forward, but did 
not say so. 

At last we decided to return to the Erica 
and consult our friend the captain. 

As we were leaving the office the missionary, 
the Rev. R. Pearson, gave us his card and 
begged us to come to Sapporo, where he lived, 
the next day. 

11 The place is well worth seeing," he said ; 
"my wife will be delighted to show you every- 
thing. She speaks French and German." 

" Please tell the guide how to bring us, and 
by what train," I said, " for he hardly knows 
three words of any but his native tongue. 
Please tell him also to take us to a photo- 
grapher's." 

The guide listened attentively to all that 
Mr. Pearson told him, and then we parted. 

Arrived at the photographer s we arranged 
ourselves into a group, and a little old man, 
looking almost as much like a monkey as a 
human being, took a photograph of our party. 

302 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

How the captain laughed when we got back 
to the Erica and told him of our dilemma. 
" So you are not going to miss your Jap dinner/' 
he said ; " well, I can give you all the money 
you want." 

That Jap dinner was a great success. We 
took off our shoes and sat on soft white mat- 
ting round a very low table. The room had 
only three sides, the fourth opening into a 
veritable Jap garden. 1 Dainty Jap women 
served us on bended knee, and danced to us 
when we had finished our repast. The first 
course consisted of tiny plates of cherries. Then 
came a kind of fungus which few of us had 
courage to attack. Fish soup followed, then 
chickens boiled with peaches. There were a 
great many courses. 

It was quite dark when we rowed back to 
the Erica ; bright stars shone above us and 
danced upon the water, while the lights of 
the town twinkled to us from the shore. 



1 This garden, though very small, contained a miniature 
lake, upon the surface of which there floated a miniature 
steamer. 



303 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

The next day we reached Sapporo about 12.30, 
after a train journey of nearly three hours. 
Lunch over, Mr. and Mrs. Pearson took us to 
see all the points of interest. Not wishing to 
enter the museum on such a lovely day, we 
looked through the keyhole and saw some 
storks. 

" There is a bear in there which swallowed a 
baby," said Mrs. Pearson. But even that did 
not tempt us. 

Mrs. Pearson was a charming American full 
of life and fun. 

" You could not have come upon us more 
unexpectedly if you had fallen from the skies," 
she said. "No travellers ever land at Otaru. 
Where have you come from ? " 

Her excitement increased when she heard that 
my mother and I had come through Siberia. 

" Why we Americans think it a fair railway 
journey to cross the States," she said, " and that 
only takes five days. How I envy you ! " 

In the afternoon we visited some Ainu 
families. The Ainus are the original inhabi- 
tants of Japan. Once spreading all over the 

304 




Ainu Woman, with ingrained moustache. 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

country they are now only to be found in 
Hokkaido. The government has lately been 
trying to prevent their extinction. The men 
are terrible drunkards, and spend half their 
time in pouring libations to the gods. At the 
commencement of the ceremony they lift up 
their heavy moustaches with long sticks called 
" moustache lifters." The women have imita- 
tion moustaches, the result of careful tattooing 
with lead in infancy. Both the men and the 
women had a wild unkempt appearance. 
Their matted hair hung over their foreheads, 
and partially concealed their features, while 
there was a look in their eyes such as one sees 
in cases where the mind is slightly unhinged. 
The Rev. J. Bachelor, who has for the last 
twenty years devoted his life to these people, 
has published an interesting book about them. 
He has also prepared a grammar in their 
language and translated the New Testament. 

As we were passing the church that has been 
built at Sapporo by the Church Missionary 
Society the Chinaman suddenly grew quite 
excited, and, turning to his master, the Colonel, 

305 U 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

said, " Look ! there is a saying of our Confucius 
inscribed above the door." 

Mrs. Pearson was much disturbed that the 
words written on a Christian church should be 
taken for those of a heathen philosopher. She 
got out of her " rickshaw," and stopping a Jap 
student, who happened to be passing, asked 
him to explain the writing to the Chinaman. 
He did so, and the latter appeared convinced ; 
but on the way back to Otaru he said to the 
Colonel, "I know it was Confucius all the same." 

The next morning we had to stay in our 
cabins to escape the coal dust with which the 
deck was black. Coal was being handed up 
the side of the ship in small covered baskets 
by women with white handkerchiefs tied round 
their heads and large mushroom hats on top. 
They seemed to enjoy their work, and laughed 
merrily all the time. Indeed, their peals of 
laughter were so contagious that we laughed 
too, and peeped out occasionally to see what 
it was all about. 

The guide came on board about noon with 
the photograph of our group. 

306 



ON A CARGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

" One of us forgot to do his hair," said Colonel 
D as he examined it critically. 

When we were leaving the Erica the captain 
said : " Ladies and gentlemen, it will be a long 
time before you see this boat again. I hope 
no one has left any property behind." 

I thought of this afterwards, when, on unpack- 
ing at Yokohama, I discovered that we had 
brought away a pair of the captain's boots, 
wrapped in paper just like ours. Poor man, 
he certainly never saw them again, for we 
gave them to a waiter at the Oriental. If the 
captain ever reads these lines I trust he will 
forgive. 

On the steamer for Yokohama we might 
have had pleasure all the time, for here also 
the captain, a Scotchman, was pleasantness 
itself, and the first mate quite anxious to be 
agreeable. Added to this the deck chairs were 
luxurious. But, alas ! w r e were now on the 
Pacific and it tossed us about most cruelly. 

At Hakodate we were to have been delayed 
at least one day, but news from China was so 
threatening that the captain received orders 

307 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

to leave at once for Yokohama that he might 
take Japanese soldiers to Taku. 

" So these gentlemen are going to the front," 
said Captain Campbell one calm day when we 
were all on deck together. 

"Yes," I replied, "and we ladies shall not 
be far from the front ourselves, for we have 
ten days' travelling on the Chinese frontier to 
look forward to." 

" You must write to each other and compare 
notes of your experiences," said the captain. 

" Whoever lives to tell the tale must tell it," 
I replied. 

We reached Yokohama on the 14th of July. 
Flags were flying and streamers fluttering in 
honour of the fete day. Arriving at the 
Oriental Hotel, we were told that in the even- 
ing there was to be a grand dinner there, and a 
dance, for which the best band in Japan had 
been brought from Tokio. 

A few hours after our arrival my mother 
and I ordered " rickshaws " and called at the 
convent on the Bluff to see the daughters of 
the manager of the hotel at Blagovestchensk. 

308 




Photograph taken on landing at Otaru, North Japan. 



ON A OAKGO BOAT— SAPPORO 

We found only one child. The mother and 
the younger one had not arrived, though they 
had left Blagovestchensk a week before us. 
They were still waiting in Vladivostok for a 
steamer. 

Just as we were leaving the convent we met 

Colonel D and Lieutenant K— — They had 

come after us to say " good-bye," for they were 
to go on by train that night to Nagasaki. 

" The news from Pekin grows worse and 
worse," they said. " We must join our regi- 
ment with the least possible delay," and with 
a hearty handshake they were gone. 

It was thus that our pleasant party broke 
up, exactly a week from the day we had left 
Vladivostok. How strange it seemed without 
the kind Colonel and his merry Adjutant, and 
how we missed that useful Chinaman who had 
looked after our interests so faithfully ! 

The other gentleman, Lieut. -Colonel S , 

remained at the Consulate in Yokohama. He 
called to see us several times during our stay 
there. 



309 



Chapter XXII 
AT NIKKO— STARTLING NEWS 

Donde una puerta se cierra, otra se abre. 

Cervantes. 

A S the Amur begins to freeze in September, 
passengers wishing to travel by steamer 
must leave Vladivostok in August. We could 
not therefore allow ourselves more than three 
weeks in the " Land of the Rising Sun." After 
a pleasant stay at Tokio we went on to Nikko, 
and it was there that we made the acquaintance 
of the new Russian Minister and his family. 
When in St. Petersburg we had heard from 
Prince Hilkoff that His Excellency M. Iswolsky 
was arranging to travel by the same route that 
we were taking, and our own Ambassador, Sir 
Charles Scott, had also mentioned him to us. 

" You will be sure to meet them somewhere 
on the route. I will send them your cards and 

310 



AT NIKKO— STARTLING NEWS 

ask them to look out for you," Prince Hilkoff 
had said just as we were starting. 

Madame Iswolsky was staying at the 
Kanaya Hotel, where we also had arranged 
to stay, and we sent her our cards as soon as 
we arrived. When we had had a little rest 
after our five hours' railway journey, Madame 
Iswolsky's maid came to say that her lady 
would be pleased to receive us in her own 
apartment. 

" So you have accomplished that long, long 
journey in safety," said Madame Iswolsky, 
giving vis a kindly welcome. "My husband 
was most anxious about you ; he carried your 
cards in his breast pocket all those weeks. 
How is it we never heard anything of you ? " 

11 You started just a week later than we did," 
I replied, " but you passed us while we were 
exploring the Steppe, and we never caught you 
up." 

Then we related how we had met two gentle- 
men who had travelled with them — M. T at 

Krasnoiarsk, and Prince D — — at Blagoves- 
tchensk. 

311 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

11 Prince D— — showed us a photograph he 
had taken of your party, and we heard of you 
at nearly every stopping place," I said. 

" Yes, we were a party of twenty," replied 
Madame Iswolsky. " Besides my husband and 
myself and my two children there were the 
governess, the valet and his wife, and a Cossack 
soldier. I could not bear to think of my 
precious children falling ill in that wild country 
and no medical aid at hand, so I took a doctor. 
Happily he was never needed. Prince Demidoff 
from London, and his wife, also travelled 
with us and took a photographer with them. 
Then there was an English friend of theirs, 

Mr. L , besides several other gentlemen, two 

of whom you met on the way. Prince Demi- 
doff and Mr. L have gone to shoot bears in 

Sakhalin." 

"I wish you could have seen the provisions 
we took with us," said the governess, an 
attractive young lady, whose name I forget. 
" We had a hundred and fifty bottles of 
Apollinaris water and any number of jams 
and preserves. They were most acceptable, 

312 



AT NIKKO— STARTLING NEWS 

for there were days and days when we could 
get no butter." 

"There were, indeed," I replied. 

" How did you arrange about a laundress ? " 
asked Madame Iswolsky. 

" I wore my blouses rough dried," I answered, 
and often felt ashamed of my appearance. 
Then I told them about the beautiful laundress 
at Stretinsk. 

"We did not go to an hotel there," said 
Madame Iswolsky ; " we went straight on board 
a government boat which was waiting for us." 

We now spent a pleasant half hour looking 
at photographs they had taken on the way, 
and Madame Iswolsky gave me several for 
my book, including one of the Russian legation 
at Tokio. 

" I hope we shall have the pleasure of meet- 
ing His Excellency," said my mother. 

" Oh, yes, you will see him ; he is to join us 
tomorrow," replied Madame Iswolsky ; and 
here he is in the group we had taken outside 
our Siberian train. Here, too, you see our 
Cossack soldier. He was a useful man and I 

313 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

should have liked to keep him with us here, 
but his appearance so alarmed the Japs that 
we had to send him back. 

M. Iswolsky arrived from Tokio the following 
morning. He was quite relieved to think the 
two poor English ladies had come saf ely through 
Siberia. 

" I was afraid you might have got into some 
difficulty," he said, "as we heard nothing of you." 

" The fact that we were ladies alone seemed 
to make people specially kind to us," I said, 
" and we met with good hearts under even the 
roughest exteriors. We have certainly no cause 
to complain." 

I showed them the photograph taken at Otaru, 
and M. Iswolsky at once recognized Colonel 

D in spite of his civil dress. " I have met 

him in St. Petersburg," he said. 

"You will have proper first-class carriages 
all the way from Stretinsk now," said M. 
Iswolsky. " I have received news that they 
are already on the line. It has just been 
opened to the public." 

We were to leave Nikko at an early hour 

314 



AT NIKKO— STARTLING NEWS 

on Friday morning, and had already posted 
letters to our friends at home telling them that 
we were on the eve of our return journey 
through Siberia, when suddenly all our plans 
were changed. 

At dinner on Thursday evening just as soup 
was being served M. Iswolsky appeared with 
a telegram in his hand. Instead of going to 
his own table he walked straight to ours, and 
said in a low voice to my mother, while all the 
other visitors looked on with curious eyes, " I 
fear it will hardly be safe for you to return by 
Siberia. I have just received a telegram to 
the effect that Blagovestchensk has been shelled 
by the Chinese. ,, 

Neither of us will ever forget that moment. 

After consultation we decided to stay another 
day at Nikko in hope of further tidings. 

M. Iswolsky left for Tokio on Friday after- 
noon. In the evening Madame Iswolsky [came 
to our room for a last chat. 

" If you call at the Legation to-morrow, on 
your way through Tokio, you will see my 
husband and get the very latest news," she said 

315 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

kindly. " I shall telegraph to him saying when 
he is to expect you." 

Such a pretty and gentle lady was Madame 
Iswolsky — a countess born, and a countess every 
inch of her. 

" I wrote to mamma every day," she said, 
" all the way from St. Petersburg to Tokio, and 
never once missed." 

We could not help thinking what an interest- 
ing book these letters would make, and how 
different it would be from mine. 

At the Legation we found M. Iswolsky 
expecting us. 

" Here is an old friend," he said, and at that 
moment Lieut. -Colonel S made his appear- 
ance. 

There was also another gentleman present. 
He was no less a personage than Father 
Nicholas the Russian missionary bishop, who 
has been labouring for so many years amongst 
the heathen in Japan. 

He told Lieut. -Colonel S that there must 

be peace between the two countries if his good 
work was to prosper, for the mere presence of 

316 



AT NIKKO— STARTLING NEWS 

military men was a hindrance to his peaceful 
labours. 

"There is no fresh news from the Amur," 
said M. Iswolsky, but I will telegraph today to 
the Governor of Vladivostok and let you know 
the result." 

The reply came several days later and was 
forwarded to us on our return from Fugiama. 
It ran as follows : " All passenger traffic on the 
Amur suspended." At the same time it was 
stated in the Japanese newspapers that all the 
foreigners in Pekin had been massacred, and 
that four Russian steamboats had been sunk by 
Boxers on the Amur. 

Not wishing to run needless risks we decided, 
with much regret, to give up all thought of 
returning through Siberia, and took our 
passages in the first steamer leaving for 
America. We sailed from Yokohama on July 
27 in the Empress of Japan. 

Most of the passengers were missionaries 
escaping for their lives from China. Many of 
them had brought away nothing but the clothes 
they wore. It was a quiet and uneventful 

317 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

voyage of thirteen days. Once indeed some of 
us caught sight of six whales spouting in a 
row, an acceptable break in the monotony of 
the horizon. 

"What little things please people on board 
ship ! " a lady remarked, as she came on deck 
and swept past us scarcely turning her head in 
our direction. 

One day while I was playing the piano in 
the saloon a fond parent approached with his 
little boy of five. Placing a chair beside me 
he said to the child, " Now you can play softly 
in the treble while the lady plays in the middle." 

The duet was a short one. 

The stewardess was a woman who had seen 
better days. On one occasion she invited me 
into her pretty cabin, and entertained me with 
an amusing tale. 

" During one of my voyages," she said, " a 
widow lady of high rank was particularly kind 
to me. Wishing to make her some little return, 
I bought a few white flowers, when I went on 
shore at Victoria, and laid them on the table 
in her cabin." 

318 



AT NIKKO— STARTLING NEWS 

" Oh thank you so much ! " replied the widow, 
with tears in her eyes. " You have placed 
them upon my dear husband ; he is in that 
little Japanese box on the table. I had him 
cremated just before leaving Shanghai." 

The chief sights of interest that we passed on 
our rapid journey through Canada were the 
glorious giant trees of Vancouver and the 
magnificent peaks and canons of the Rocky 
Mountains. We spent a night at Banff, but 
mosquitoes and an overcrowded hotel were a 
drawback to that lovely spot. 

We were much struck, amongst other things, 
with the feeling of equality that prevails in the 
Dominion. Once, at a large hotel, when we 
had ordered some tea in our bedroom, " Excuse 
my sitting down," said the waiter, seating him- 
self comfortably in an armchair, "but is there 
anything else I can do for you ? " 

At Toronto we bought a daily paper and 
read thrilling speeches on the trouble in China, 
that had been delivered by some of the mission- 
aries in whose company we had crossed the 
Pacific. But it was not until several days later 

319 



A RIBBON OF IRON 

that we were relieved from our anxiety as to 
the fate of Pekin. 

Crossing Lake Ontario we spent a couple of 
days at Niagara. The beautiful falls surpassed 
our wildest expectations. 

In order to appease the growing anxiety 
of friends at home, whose letters had just 
reached us, I had my mothers photograph 
taken at our hotel in New York, from which 
city we sailed for Liverpool on August 22. 
On the 31st of the same month we arrived in 
London, our journey through Siberia having 
developed into a tour round the world. 



THE END. 



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